Remember Beady Eye? Much like The Doors, they lasted all of two albums when a key member was no longer part of the group, and those two albums have been all but forgotten in both cases. Four years after 2013\u2019s Be<\/i>, Liam Gallagher decided to return to action with his first proper solo album. It comes 23 years after Oasis\u2019 debut and enlists the help of American pop producers Greg Kurstin and Andrew Wyatt to help write eight of the 12 songs.<\/p>\n
To hear him tell it \u2013 if you get past the insults \u2013 Liam is simply searching for a band, but because there isn\u2019t one, he called in professional help to give the songs the push that he couldn\u2019t (or, more bluntly, that Noel used to give them back in the day). And because Liam will always fit into one comfortable sound, any preconceived notions about this disc that you have are likely true.<\/p>\n
The rockers are huge, multi-layered, mostly midtempo, and feature grandiose-sounding but vaguely meaningless lyrics (so, Oasis). Mixed in are some slower ballads that have been debated by various fans and critics; some dislike the approach, but many think they\u2019re among the album\u2019s highlights. I fall into the former camp, not because they\u2019re bad songs, but because the faster ones are clearly where Liam\u2019s passion lies. Plus, starting a White Album soundalike called \u201cFor What It\u2019s Worth\u201d with the lyrics \u201cFor what it\u2019s worth \/ My intentions were good\u201d is bound for a chuckle instead of reflection (Liam, we\u2019ve read your Twitter feed). \u201cChinatown\u201d is probably the best of the bunch, not lyrically, but certainly in the minimalist music; it\u2019s an area Liam that should explore further.<\/p>\n
When he shakes off the Beatles homages and ghosts of Britpop past, the disc comes to life. The jumpy \u201cYou Better Run\u201d and \u201cGreedy Soul\u201d are two highlights, with Kurstin ably supplementing Liam\u2019s well-known attitude with modern rock flair. \u201cWall Of Glass\u201d is a fine single and opening song. It\u2019s not as punchy as the other two, but it seems to bridge the gap between Oasis and As You Were<\/i>. Buried toward the end, \u201cI Get By\u201d is a simple yet effective rocker with the self-referencing line \u201cI never hold back from the truth.\u201d At least now he\u2019s being honest.<\/p>\n
Taken as a whole, the album shows Liam and his producers can write a solo album that at least hangs with Noel\u2019s High Flying Birds project and that seems like a logical extension of the latter-day Oasis and two Beady Eye albums. Liam makes no secret that he uses the Beatles, Stones and such as his main inspiration, but that he wants it to sound modern and to do it his way. On that level he succeeds. As You Were <\/i>is not exactly a triumph, but it\u2019s no nostalgia trip at all. It\u2019s a strong, attitude-filled modern rock record worth checking out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10081],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-45117","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-liam-gallagher","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45117"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}