Noel’s gone pop but you gotta roll with it
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds: Who Built The Moon? Verdict: Hail to the chief Björk: Utopia Verdict: Lush & inventive
WHEN Liam Gallagher was gearing up for his first solo album last month, he was adamant that As You Were would place him firmly in the classic rock tradition of The Beatles and Rolling Stones.
The album, which topped the charts, certainly wouldn’t see him ‘going off on a space jazz odyssey’. For his estranged older brother Noel, things are very different, it seems.
While Liam topped the charts by excelling at the familiar, Noel is taking risks like never before. And his third solo album, Who Built The Moon?, could be described as, well, a space jazz odyssey.
Noel, 50, made the record with Belfast DJ and film composer David Holmes — who rejected anything that sounded vaguely like the Gallaghers’ old band Oasis. As a result, Noel has embraced electronic beats, French psychedelic rock, bubblegum pop and what he calls ‘cosmic punk’.
It’s a bold move. As the main writer in Oasis, ‘The Chief’ was responsible for such catchy gems as Roll With It. But this album pushes his music forward and — on its best songs — does so without forgetting the fundamentals of great songwriting. That’s certainly the case on Holy Mountain, that ‘cosmic punk’ number.
A stomping bubblegumpop track, it recalls Plastic Bertrand’s Ca Plane Pour Moi and Ricky Martin’s salsa-pop hit She Bangs. It could be only improved by, whisper it, a more forceful lead vocalist. Liam Gallagher, say. Noel’s melodic gifts shine through again on She Taught Me How To Fly and Be Careful What You Wish For, an acoustic shuffle built around a riff that echoes Come Together, the only point here where he glances back to The Beatles.
A pair of his rock star pals crop up on two of the more experimental pieces, with Paul Weller playing what sounds like church organ on the largely instrumental Fort Knox and Johnny Marr adding guitar on If Love Is The Law. Another guest, singer-songwriter Charlotte Marionneau, adds spoken-word French vocals with the aid of a mega-phone on It’s A Beautiful World. It was Marionneau who gave fresh meaning to the term cutting-edge music last month when she appeared alongside Noel on Later...With Jools Holland while playing a pair of scissors as a percussion instrument. That, naturally, prompted a withering response from Liam, who tweeted that he wanted somebody to peel potatoes at his next show. The feuding brothers, musically and personally, have never seemed so far apart, kicking any thoughts of an Oasis reunion firmly into touch for now. They are both enjoying themselves too much as solo performers.
If Noel’s comeback is surprising, the ninth solo effort from Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk is downright odd. It is lush, optimistic and uncompromisingly off-beat. The traditional verses and choruses of pop are absent In their place is a suite of dreamy, immersive pieces punctuated by electronic pulses and field recordings of birdsong. Answering only to her own artistic whims, Bjork is certainly never dull.