LIAM GALLAGHER JOHN SQUIRE
LIAM GALLAGHER JOHN SQUIRE
John Squire recently admitted that, by the time The Stone Roses’ comeback singles All For One and Beautiful Thing emerged in 2016, the band were effectively finished. Squire’s two reflective solo albums merit reassessment, but neither were exactly awash with bravado. Before that, you have to cast your mind all the way back to 1997 when his band
The Seahorses reached No.2 in the UK with their debut LP. Blimey.
Since the Roses’ final shows in 2017, Liam Gallagher has been reborn, all three solo albums reaching No.1. Commercially at least, Liam’s hero has more to prove. Thankfully, the pair’s album – long story short, they got together by chance – is a casual, often casually brilliant, affair.
Good as Gallagher has been solo, his co-writers haven’t captured his hilarity. His insistence that Squire write all 10 songs results in the publicly stoic guitarist revealing an off-kilter wit, getting Gallagher to sing Star Wars references in I’m A Wheel’s vintage blues and detailing an excruciating comedown in the colourful psych-pop of Mars To Liverpool.
It’s not an album to change anyone’s mind, more a confident affirmation of their respective strengths: the chantalong Raise Your Hands is the perfect aural depiction of Gallagher at the mic stand, while the gonzo glam You’re Not The Only One is Squire fully off the leash.
Not everything works. I’m So Bored is too cartoonish in attitude, Love You Forever a swampy solo in search of a song: while I’m A Wheel shows Gallagher is surprisingly comfortable muscling into Robert Plant territory, its blues counterpart could do with
Mani and Reni to give it some groove instead of veteran REM/Beck drummer Joey Waronker and producer Greg Kurstin as the rhythm section.
These are minor gripes when placed next to the primary coloured Kinks swirl of Make It Up As You Go Along or the closing Mother Nature’s Song, a beautiful ballad on the edge of Gallagher’s vocal range. They’ve already hinted it’ll be a regular partnership. On this evidence, what took them so long?