You gotta roll with it, but Noel’s gone all poppy
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 different.
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 and Don’t Look Back In Anger, the latter becoming a beacon of Manchester’s courage in the wake of terrorism. Many of the songs on his two previous solo efforts were also stalked by the ghosts of Britpop.
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, poppy track, it recalls Plastic Bertrand’s Ca Plane Pour Moi and Ricky Martin’s salsa-pop hit She Bangs. It could only be improved by, whisper it, a more forceful lead vocalist. Liam Gallagher, say. noel’s melodic gifts shine through h again on She e Taught Me e how To Fly y and Be Careful ul What You Wish sh For, an acoustic stic shuffle built ui l t around a riff that echoes Come Together, the he only point here e where Gallagher glances ances back to The Beatles. es.
A pair of his s 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. I F NOEL’ S comeback is surprising, the ninth solo effort from Icelandic singer- songwriter Bjork is downright odd. A sequel to 2015’ s bleak break- up album Vulnicura, it is lush, optimistic and uncompromisingly off-beat. A word of warning, though. Those expecting tunes to hum on the way to work should look elsewhere. The traditional verses, choruses and bridges of pop are absent. In their place, echoing Kate Bush’s 2005 album Aerial Aerial, we have a suite of dreamy, dream immersive pieces punctuated by electron electronic pulses and field recordings of bird birdsong. Bjo Bjork, 52, has desc described Utopia pia as her ‘dating ing record’, an and its opening in songs sparkle with th the adrenaline lin rush of a ne new relationship. sh The Gate is an eer eerie, but gorgeous, love song. Blissing Me t tells of excess texting and ‘ two music s i nerds obsessing’. But Body Memory, about moving on from heartache, loses its focus over ten formless minutes. The album also features a lot of flute. Bjork formed an all-female woodwind orchestra — her ‘flute club’ — for the occasion, and her childhood classical training comes to the fore on the hypnotic Courtship and the beautiful Paradisa. Answering only to her own artistic whims, she is certainly never dull.
NOEL GALLAGHER starts a UK tour at the Brighton Centre on April 22, 2018 (gigsandtours.com).