Noel Gallagher

I think it’s fair to say that upon first hearing Noel Gallagher’s solo single ‘The Death of You and Me’ I hardly jumped from my seat claiming to have heard the future of rock and roll, more a wet squid mumble of “it’s ok…sounds a bit like ‘The Importance of Being Idle’”

I’ve now listened to it a few times and still feel well within the same arena. On the flip side I’ve just listened to the stateside single ‘If I Had a Gun’ and think that this is top drawer stuff. A great song and proof that Noel’s fire hadn’t burned out when the coke dealer stopped popping over. A great verse, strong chorus and something Beady Eye have yet to manage, a killer middle 8, pop-tastic.

Why it’s surprising to me and others that Noel is capable of writing such a great song is beyond me considering he has easily one of the strongest back catalogues of the last 20 years to look back on. Did we really think that the man who wrote ‘Live Forever’ and ‘The Master plan’ couldn’t bang a chord sequence together? What separates the new Noel Gallagher solo material to the Beady Eye singles (and album come to that) is the fact that the words are no nonsense and genuine. Liam and Beady Eye like to drop words like ‘Psychedelic’ and ‘rock and rooooll’ into every conversation but it takes more than making abstract ‘dripping from a dead dogs eye’ lines to make a great psychedelic rocker. In some cases rambling gobbledygook is just an easy road to the chorus where as writing something clear and simple and no nonsense is the real challenge and craft.

The Chief is back

The album Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds is released on October 17th. And will then be followed by a second album recorded with collective Amorphous Androgynous (I know…what happened to names like The Smiths?) and is released early 2012.

http://soundcloud.com/kroq/noel-gallagher-if-i-had-a-gun