Noel gets nostalgic
There is also new music from Easy Life and Garbage
WHILE lockdown caused many artists to look towards a new era, Noel Gallagher was reminiscing on the last decade of High Flying Birds.
Back the Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021) features hits from his last three number one albums and EPs.
It brings back classics like the melodic dance track AKA… What A Life! and the classic/alt rock beat of In The Heat Of The Moment.
The deluxe bonus disc boasts acoustic covers and techno remixes on works like If I Had A Gun… and Blue Moon Rising.
It also features two new tracks — the melancholic We’re On Our Way Now, reflecting on the loss of a friend, and the more hopeful, Motowninfluenced Flying On The Ground.
Asked why he has now decided to produce a greatest hits album, Gallagher said: “It got to 10 years and then lockdown with nothing else going on, so it gave me something to focus on really.”
Fans of Gallagher will warmly welcome new singles and revisitation of the classics but the 18-track package may leave you craving something more.
6/10
EASY LIFE — LIFE’S A BEACH
IF FRONTMAN Murray Matravers and his crew of reggae and R&B-leaning indie rockers have been biding their time, it’s surely been worth the wait.
After three mixtapes and numerous singles, Leicester band Easy Life release their debut album, Life’s A Beach.
It’s an uplifting, immersive collection of songs likely to become your go-to this summer, combining nostalgia for the good times with a pensive streak.
The beach has seemed a long way off during the past 14 months and Easy Life capture a certain sentimental longing in their music that seems very 2021.
There’s reflections on mental health (Living Strange), self-help anthems (A Message To Myself) and straight bangers (Skeletons), all delivered with an ease rarely seen in fledgling bands. Matravers lets it all hang out.
Of the 12 songs, not one lacks lyrical prowess and each is backed by a heady mix of electronics, swung hip hop beats, trippy backing vocals and horns.
There’s something raw here that’s hard to define — something that makes Life’s A Beach one of 2021’s best albums so far.
9/10
(Review by Alex Green)
VARIOUS ARTISTS — SMALL AXE OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK
MUSIC is an integral part of Small Axe, Sir Steve McQueen’s sweeping anthology film series documenting the black British community’s joys and struggles.
Lovers Rock, starring Micheal Ward and Amarah-Jae St Aubyn, tells a story of young love against the backdrop of the eponymous sub-genre.
And the title of the series itself comes from an African proverb popularised in Jamaica and the West Indies by Bob Marley’s 1973 song of the same name.
Fresh from winning a clutch of TV Baftas, it seems right that the music of Small Axe is being released in compilation form. These tracks, which soundtrack pivotal moments in the series, are bolstered by Mica Levi’s minimal, haunting score.
Toots & The Maytals’ Pressure Drop and Janet Kay’s Silly Games (Lovers Rock Edit) channel the highs, while Michael Kiwanuka’s cover of Nina Simone’s To Be Young, Gifted And Black proves its message of empowerment remains as important today as it was in 1969.
The Small Axe soundtrack charts a journey through black British experience and affirms the importance of music in both protest and celebration.
7/10
(Review by Alex Green)
GARBAGE — NO GODS NO MASTERS
NINETIES rock band Garbage are bringing back their signature sound with a fresh, modern evolution in No Gods No Masters.
The numerology importance of their seventh album – the seven virtues, sorrows, and deadly sins – is said to have “affected the DNA of its content”.
The synth-infused tracks move from a gritty feminist reckoning in The Men Who Rule The World to haunting melodies and harmonies in Waiting For God.
Edgy guitar riffs and frontwoman Shirley Manson’s emotive tone deliver lyrics critiquing sexism, capitalism and racism.
Manson said: “It was our way of trying to make sense of how nuts the world is and the astounding chaos we find ourselves in.”
This album would not go amiss soundtracking the social movements of the present day.
8/10
(Review by Naomi Clarke)
NEW MORNING BLUES — LONDON
JOANNA Backovic and Ian de Sylva have created perfect late-night listening with London, their project as New Morning Blues.
They are married and run a music studio in Soho, although this is the first time they have recorded together, and the album takes its cues from the 1960s.
Their influences range from the duets of Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood, through Scott Walker to Simon & Garfunkel, from folk through baroque pop to film soundtracks, as well as cult 90s band Mazzy Star. Opener Fortune Teller Blues is a classic electric blues, mainly sung by de Sylva with backing vocals by Backovic, and with some 1960s-style organ.
The folky The Mirror, sung by Backovic, is accompanied by sparse piano and strings, while The New Messiah has touches of The Byrds. At just over six minutes, The Key is the longest of the 10 tracks and has a psychedelic feel, while the haunting debut single A Face In The Mirror has Spaghetti Western touches.
It all sounds like it should be listened to in a smoky club somewhere near Carnaby Street some time in the mid-60s, but London transcends its influences and stands on its own.
8/10
(Review by Matthew George)