After 15 years as the driving force behind Oasis, Noel Gallagher's first solo outing was either going to be a rehash of his former band's glories, or something completely different altogether. Remarkably, "High Flying Birds" ends up being both, at times even on the same song.
Sitting somewhere between Oasis' early output and their more psychadelic influenced early noughties albums, this is most definitely a Gallagher record, but where Beady Eye went full on Oasis while homaging the Beatles even more, Noel takes a more electronic influenced route, with dance beats creeping in and psychadelica playing a big part in the album's structure. In fact, only on album closer "Stop the Clocks" (which incidentally has been floating around as an Oasis demo for the past 10 years) does he produce a true "Oasis sounding" track. And a top level one at that. Songs like the two singles "The Death of You and Me" and especially the Vauxhall soundtracking "AKA... What a Life!" take his simple lyrics and melody format, but progresses it into something more, something - not new - but different.
"High Flying Birds" doesn't reach the heights of "Definitely Maybe" or "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" but very few albums do. What it does stand as, is Noel Gallagher's best collection of work since those two. While the later Oasis albums had high points, this is a consistantly good rock record, and a pleasantly surprising return to form for one of Britain's most enduring singwriters.
****
Watch: "AKA... What A Life"
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