Album Review: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds ‘Self-Titled’

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gallagher recently spoke–in his typical unfiltered manner–on the subject of bands putting out new material past what some would consider to be their prime years. “No one gives a shit about your new record. Play the fucking old ones,” he said.

It shouldn’t be a surprise then that Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds doesn’t stray very far from the formula he and his brother perfected in the mid 90s with Oasis. Many of these songs could be mistaken for tracks straight off of Be Here Now, which is kind of remarkable after fourteen years, but if nothing else Gallagher has been consistent in his songwriting. ‘The Death of You and Me’ sounds a little too much like ‘The Importance of Being Idle’ from 2005’s Don’t Believe the Truth, but a lot of fans will appreciate that.

One would expect the accusation that an artist’s music hasn’t evolved for the length of their entire career to be a harsh one, indicating laziness or a lack of creativity, but there can be little doubt that this is precisely the album Noel Gallagher wanted to put out.

And he has a point. Many of the fans who buy this record would be disappointed to hear anything else. The songs don’t have to be direct rehashes of older material to bring up certain nostalgic and familiar feelings, and this is one of the most powerful ways in which people connect with music. That’s all well and good for a longtime fan of Gallagher’s work, but it might suggest that he doesn’t have a whole lot to offer for new listeners.

From the first song, ‘Everybody’s On the Run’, the music takes subtle twists and turns, rising and falling in a carefully choreographed verse-chorus-verse structure, while evolving steadily and building as the song progresses. Noel Gallagher does an admirable job of creating pop songs with real texture, which are not so complex that they can’t be thoroughly enjoyed on the very first listen by just about anybody. Almost every song on this album could be a hit single just as easily as an under-appreciated fan favorite.

There is an undertone to many of these songs, which for me was unexpected, that seems slightly uneasy, as if something is just a little bit off. Notes are often sustained and quiver away eerily in the background, and Gallagher turns in places to a fairly monotone progression of thick, heavy chords. These aspects give a dangerous feeling to the songs, which might otherwise be a little too ordinary.

In the foreground–or more accurately, right up in your face–there is a huge selection of instruments and bold sounds present on Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, all worked very effectively into rock shapes and conventions. Noel stays very true to his superstar self, with guitar solos battling it out against entire orchestras, but this is stadium rock carefully plotted out and kept from getting too cheesy.

Nowhere is this as strongly evident as on the closing track, ‘Stop the Clocks’. The song starts without a lot of apparent ambition, sounding quite reflective, and feeling like a goodbye. The climax though is explosive, bringing together all of the album’s different themes and sounds in a huge, triumphant moment, with a choir engaged in battle against a screeching guitar, pounding drums and a frenetic brass section. It all cuts out with a bit of a whimper, and leaves the listener eager to listen to the whole record over again. The perfect closer.

These are great songs, but there is one thing that would make them even better, and it’s probably not something Noel would love to hear. Almost every song on Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds absolutely cries out for the voice of his now estranged brother, Liam. Noel does sound great here, but Liam Gallagher would no doubt sound better, because it’s his voice that these songs are written for. Noel really hasn’t changed his approach to writing songs at all now that he is writing for himself.

At the end of the day this is very much an Oasis album with a part of the band missing, but for what it’s worth, it’s a really good Oasis album.