The Earliest Bird: Top New Recorded Release 5-27-22 – 6-2-22, Liam Gallagher’s “C’mon You Know” Reviewed
The English sure do love their Gallaghers, Noel the brains, Liam the brawn, and the two the most working class yobs since the Sex Pistols emerged from London’s East End. It isn’t hard to imagine that without Oasis Liam’s smart mouth would’ve gotten him knifed after a Man City loss and Noel would be roadieing for McCartney. But instead they gave us three albums that changed Brit Rock and then didn’t any more before Liam punched Noel and that was that. Liam went on to form the disastrous Beady Eye in 2011, released two albums, and was pretty good on stage (here) and back out till 2017 when he released his first solo album, it was alright, nothing special and the 2019 follow up was less than that.
Still, Liam fine tuned his sass, made himself a British institution, even played a local NYC gig at Terminal 5, and returns today with another sub-Oasis album, C’mon You Know. It should be huge in England where he just sold 160K tickets to Knebworth Park (home of Oasis greatest triumph, and actually it isn’t sold out), he might even take Harry Styles off the # 1 position on the album charts.
Word on the streets is that C’mon You Know is Liam’s best solo work, and I second that, but that is faint praise and the business like, overlong album can only knock it out on pre-programmed opening gauntlet “More Power” – a slow fuse plus choir and not as bad as the title suggests, personal best “Diamond In The Dark”, skip the sub “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “Don’t Go Halfway” , before the steady as you go, second in line, title track. “Better Days” is the third of the unexceptionally exception rock anthems and nearly good enough, Dave Grohl co-sign “Everything’s Electric” is nowhere near good enough. Then it falls apart with the waking horror that is “Moscow Rules” (written with Ezra Koenig no less) and nothing else worth even mentioning; the last three songs disappear into the ether.
The UK (I mean the English) embrace Liam as a signpost for pre-Brexit worlds, Britpop gone and not forgotten, pre-Covid19: it is an exercise in 90s nostalgia. Liam will be 50 in September. Have a nice day.
Grade: B
