Album Review: Liam Gallagher & John Squire

The news that former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher and Stone Roses guitarist John Squire were collaborating on an album sounded like the stuff of ‘Fantasy Band Line-ups’. These Mancunian legends working together seemed as unlikely as Pep Guardiola moving to manage Man Utd or Gary Neville captaining City.

And yet, just a few bars into ‘Just Another Rainbow’, the lead single from this self-titled album, it all just kind of… makes sense; swirling, Roses-ish riffs reminiscent of the sprawling Second Coming, with Gallagher’s trademark drawl soaring over the top.

Elsewhere on mid-paced opener ‘Raise Your Hands’, the younger Gallagher sounds in fine voice, while Squire does the kind of swirly guitar god thing he could probably do in his sleep. It’s a catchy, clappy singalong that nods its flat-cap to the’60s, in a similar manner to Cast or The Coral, and that’s no bad thing.

The Stones-ish shuffle of ‘Mars To Liverpool’ and ‘You’re Not The Only One’ are brimming over with sunbursts of guitar that are vintage Squire, while ‘I’m A Wheel’ is the kind of slow, bluesy affair you could imagine Clapton playing on 50 years ago.

On tracks like the catchy ‘I’m So Bored’, Gallagher’s lyrics aren’t going to trouble the Ivor Novello judges, but it’s all so addictive and likeable, it’s hard to care. “I know you’re happy in your suburban trance,” he guffaws on the Byrds-ian jangle of ‘One Day At A Time’. “You should have fucked me when you had the chance”.

‘Make It Up As You Go Along’, meanwhile, is brief but brilliantly hilarious, Gallagher intoning the perfect kiss-off: “Thank you for your thoughts and prayers / And fuck you too”.

It’s all a bit mid-’90s, but in a very good way.

8/10