Noel Gallagher: High Flying Birds

No matter what I thought about Oasis, it was a successful rock band that is still talked about today (although much moreso in the UK.) A while back I addressed the fact that although I wasn't a fan of their work by and large, I could still admit when a song of theirs was good. I have their two-disc greatest hits and find myself skipping a lot. Regardless my feelings about those other Oasis songs, Noel Gallagher is someone whose songwriting talents are considerable. He's internalized so much classic pop rock that he seems to compose his records with his eye closed and one hand behind his back. It's easy for him to do, I'm saying.

The sound of High Flying Birds isn't the sound of genius at work, I don't think. It's not innovation in progress. It's the work of a really good songwriter knowing what works and what he wants to play: not only that, but it seems to dovetail well with what his fans want and expect from him. He does it so consistently and with such ease that I don't find myself skipping around much, although I do always let my ears perk up when I know "The Death of You And Me" is coming near. Even the most basic-seeming tracks, like "Dream On" or "(I Wanna Live in a Dream In My) Record Machine" offer anthemic, strummy pleasures. If not all the songs quite stand out, at least they all offer a little ingredient that endears me, like the swaggering "So long, baby, buh-bye" chorus on "(Standing On) The Strong Beach" or the oceanic late-Beatlesness of "Stop The Clocks." Most have really catchy, toe-tapping choruses, the insidious kind you find yourself humming to yourself. "If I Had a Gun..." has some of the best lyrics I've heard the usually-incomprehensible Noel has cranked out.

"The Death Of You And Me," though, is the moment of greatness here. Although I made note of Noel being fine to fall back on his apparently-natural ability, that's the one that feels like it took some doing and it paid off. If it doesn't totally break from his Oasis pattern it certainly feels like a development of its own, a slight development but an effective one. It swirls like gypsy music, swells with horns (which recur throughout the album, along with plenty of other sonic accents) and has a chorus that really commands attention rather than settling in the back of the mind. The whole exercise was worth it if only for that piece.

There's nothing shocking here. It's what you might expect from a solo album from the main creative voice of Oasis, the same basic pop chords and word salad lyrics and vague-feelery. But Noel is no longer the brash, world-beating young man of Oasis' heyday. This sounds like an album by someone who's been there and back, who knows his skillset and has settled in nicely to it. It offers a lot of the same goodies as the Oasis songs I like, like "Wonderwall" or "Lyla," but toned down considerably. Because Noel is handling the vocals, it sounds a good bit more subdued and down-to-Earth. His voice sounds less rock star and more coffee shop than his brother. So the music comes off as an interesting mutation between the arena and the coffee shop: epic yet grounded. Dreamy and Earthy. Familiar yet fresh.

Buy this album now: iTunes Canada // iTunes USA Flying Birds // Amazon.ca // Amazon.com