- Music
- 27 Sep 17
With the demise of Beady Eye in 2014, Liam Gallagher admitted to feeling as if he had been summarily made redundant. He was, in his own mind, a guy who fronted a band. All of a sudden he was just Liam Gallagher – a midlife readjustment that hit harder than he had anticipated.
But, just as Noel’s exit from Oasis unleashed a new chapter of creativity, freedom from frontman obligations has had a liberating impact on the now 45 year old Gallagher Jr
To proclaim As You Were an artistic re-birth would be overstating the case – this is mostly still Liam venting in that charismatic whine as guitars chug and shimmer. On the other hand, it’s a textured, engaging listen – one that knocks into a cocked fedora the dreadful Beady Eye.
Credit for that must go in part to his new collaborators. Where Liam’s previous project was essentially Oasis-minus-Noel, this solo affair sees the singer – allegedly at the behest of manager/girlfriend Debbie Gwyther – throwing open the door to a wider range of influences. Single ‘For What It’s Worth’ was part-authored by Simon Aldred of Manchester chamber pop underachievers Cherry Ghost; much of the rest of the album is co-written with Lily Allen / Sia producer Greg Kurstin (also a contributor to the recent Foo Fighters LP).
Kurstin’s studio savvy blends surprisingly well with Liam’s man-of-the-people grit. As You Were screams out of the blocks with ‘Wall Of Glass’, Gallagher’s sand-paper yelp fluttering over romping fretwork. Here and elsewhere the lyrics wrestle with age and self doubt. After decades of sustained success, life-post Beady Eye has evidently given Liam pause for reflection – and this uncharacteristic vulnerability has caused him to raise his game.
Not that Oasis fans should scatter for the hills. The ghost of ‘Wonderwall’ is conjured on anthem-in-waiting ‘Bold’ – a mea culpa ballad that splices self-flaggatory lyrics and a celebratory chorus (like all the best pop writers Kurstin knows how to locate the sweet spot between sad and uplifting)
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That isn’t to say Gallagher is completely redeemed. Lyrically, he remains indebted to Noel’s "bus-rhymes-with-fuss" school of writing. The otherwise beguiling ‘Chinatown’, for instance, nearly trips up at the outset as Liam shares the clunking observation, "well the cops are taking over/ while everyone’s in yoga."
Yet such lapses aren’t enough to detract from the overall sense of an artist who has decided he no longer wants to be a pastiche of his younger self and has taken his first serious creative leap in over a decade. Noel’s new record arrives in November. He’ll be doing well to eclipse As You Were’s double punch of autumnal contemplation and peerless pop swagger.
8/10
As You Were will be released on Warner Records on October 6.