Oasis, well Liam and Noel, have had as lousy a 21st century as U2. It has been 18 years since they’ve released an album worth getting excited about and since they’ve gone their separate, Liam has spent his life immersed in paternity suits and Noel in being a bad loser wiseass.
Noel’s first solo album, also the name of his band, was 2011’s Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, a somewhat boring, minor key, though popular in the UK, affair, exemplified by the Beatles on dramamine “If I Had A Gun..,”, they all sound like rewrites of “The Girl In The Dirty Shirt”, over arranged and performed at different tempos.
Noel’s sophomore solo effort, Chasing Yesterday, is better. The first song on the album is the glorious “Riverman” which would have been a major work if Liam had sung it instead of Noel’s light voice, which has so much trouble expressing feelings that are second nature to his brother.everything about it is bige than life without being all around the world. A good song.
The album can only go down from there, all very second hand Oasis with a side of acid rock. The Johnny Marr track isn’t very good, when I heard it heard it earlier this year I was surprised at how lame it is. But “The Right Stuff” is good second tier Oasis and “Lock All The Doors” is literally second tier Oasis, an oldie finally seeing the light of day.
The playing is consistently excellent and the sound, the arrangements, the guitars plus touches, make for an unceasingly pleasant ambient track: the songs and the singing aren’t there, but the music is a pleasure. Hey, they will buy it in the UK and he is always welcome to sell out the Beacon (as opposed to MSG -the last place I saw Oasis) if he is town.
Grade: B-
