Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - "In The Heat Of The Moment" (2014)

I’ve got to be honest - when I first heard the “na-na-na-na-nah” at the start of this song, I absolutely hated it. I had high hopes for Noel after a pretty solid solo debut, but this just sounded like he was going down a poppy route that I wasn’t ready to roll with.

But while it is a long way from the sensory assault of Oasis’ early days, “In The Heat Of The Moment” isn’t a bad tune at all. Once you get over the cheesiness of the excess singing and bell chime, and accept that The Chief has a bit more licence to try something new these days, you can appreciate that rolling bassline and how achingly catchy this tune is. Supposedly, the lyrics have something to do with a man going into space, but did the meaning behind Noel’s writing ever matter so much? It’s more about the feeling that his words bring out, and the way things peak at the chorus - heat of the moment, indeed.

Still, this will go down as a single that was outdone by its B-side. It’s true that it employs a lot of Noel’s lyrical clichés (a line out of “It’s Getting Better (Man!!)” is followed up by talk of a “setting sun”) and the melody of the chorus is oddly reminiscent of “Hello”, but as it’s a B-side you can just let him have some fun with it.

Anyway, it’s a lot more of an energetic rocker, as is expected from The Chief, with the keys adding a lot of emphasis to the chorus. It’s odd that there’s also a music video for it (which is dreadful anyway) but the song got my hopes back up for Chasing Yesterday.