Gareth - 2/25/2012

If you're a fan of Oasis then you will be a fan of Noel Gallagher and his first solo outing 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds', as the principal songwriter in oasis for most of their existence, most songs sound like softer or mellower Oasis tracks, mainly the ones that Noel Gallagher sang for obvious reasons.
There are some really strong tracks and some weaker ones, a mixed bag really. As a long time oasis/Noel Gallagher fan I expected to like every track, however on first listen I didn't particularly like the album it has to be said as I thought it offered nothing new, which is doesn't, but more than this, the album as a whole seemed over produced or ironed out if you will. It all seamed to smooth, no cracks in the vocal, no squeal, distortion or buzz of guitars, nothing that appeared to stand out, every part of the character had seemed to have been edited out of the album.
Yet less than two months later I am a fan of the album. Track one 'Everybody's on the run' has a good, long building intro and a good chorus "Hang in there love, you gotta hold on". The first release from the album 'The Death of You and Me' probably selected due to its obvious connotations relating to the relationship between Liam and Noel, although the lyrical content bares no relevance to what you thought it was actually about. This tune appears to resemble a previous Oasis song called 'Importance of Being idle'. The biggest change comes in the form of the song 'AKA.What A Life' which is again, a reasonably straight forward track but seems to incorporate a dance beat element which lifts the track up and sets it apart. The stand out tracks for me are 'If I Had a Gun, with the beautiful line "Hope I didn't speak to soon, my eyes have always followed you around the room", 'AKA what a life' and 'Broken Arrow'. The weakest song for me comes in the way of the final track 'Stop the Clocks', which just doesn't really get going at all. This is an enjoyable album to listen to but if you're not paying attention and listening to actually listen then this record can have a tendency to just wash over you and be over before it's even begun. A good Solid first album from Noel Gallagher, but I'm sure he could produce much better. With speculation of his second album to be released in late 2012, collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous on an 18 track more "psychedelic" sounding album, maybe this could be the shake-up Noel Gallagher needs to become relevant again and stir new interest.