It can’t have taken Noel Gallagher long to realise that calling his new album Chasing Yesterday was a mistake – the 47-year-old has repeatedly told journalists as much in a flurry of pre-release interviews. Noel and Liam are often accused of living off a mid-90s heydey that spawned classics Definitely Maybe and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, and the mega-selling letdown Be Here Now, the latter leading to the band’s eventual fall from grace.
In the 2000s Oasis spent a few albums treading water; no matter how much they wanted to look forward, one foot was always stuck in the past. It wasn’t until their final album – 2008’s Dig Out Your Soul – that they appeared ready to evolve their brand of meat and potatoes rock. But excepting a reunion – which Gallagher Snr seems to both rule out on a weekly basis – we won’t know what a reinvigorated Oasis could have been.
The Mancunian’s debut solo album, released under the moniker Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, made it clear he felt hemmed in by the Oasis monolith. Its varied instrumentation and genre-hopping found an artist who was comfortable with the past, aware of his strengths, and also keen to venture cautiously into new territory. Chasing Yesterday continues that journey, rendering the title a bizarre red herring. Unfortunately, it also hands his critics an easy gag with which to dismiss him.
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‘High Flying Birds was a sturdy, consistent record with flashes of brilliance. While the songs themselves were among the best he’d compiled in a decade, a few were let down by unimaginative production. For Chasing Yesterday, Gallagher has taken over the production reins, leaving behind Dave Sardy, who worked on his debut and the last two Oasis albums.
The result is a diverse record – with more varied rhythms and less pop sheen. Opener ‘Riverman’ boasts a satisfying saxophone solo, while ‘The Right Stuff’ stalks the listener with its sultry bass clarinet. The guitars are more prominent this time, too. Final track ‘The Ballad of the Mighty I’ features an appearance from British guitar hero Johnny Marr, while the solo on ‘The Girl With X-Ray Eyes’ seems to channel Oasis’ 90s rivals Blur.
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As with the album cover, which is surely an early contender for worst of 2015, Chasing Yesterday’s weaknesses are mostly a result of laziness. From time to time the lyrics descend into generic Gallagherisms, with too many references to the weather; storms, rain, thunder and lightning all make regular appearances. Gallagher has never been a lyricist of great note, but he risks distracting from his songs’ strengths when the words are simply a stream of clichés.
‘The Mexican’, meanwhile, is the album’s only true clunker. Described by Noel as akin to Queens of the Stone Age, it could have been one of the album’s most exhilarating moments rather than a limp, middle-of-the-road attempt at Palm Desert rock. Unfortunately, it lacks punch, and is one of two moments when Liam’s absent snarl pops into your head. The other is on the barnstorming ‘Lock All the Doors’, a ‘Morning Glory’-like rocker that recalls the guitar wall of sound that dominated Oasis’ first three records.
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On those albums, it was Noel’s memorable melodies that set Oasis apart. Even now, Gallagher likes to explain how hooks “fall out of the sky” and into his head in the strangest of places: in the supermarket, on the train. It’s for that reason Gallagher’s finest work never feels laboured over.
Few tracks seem truly effortless here, and it goes without saying that’s there’s no ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ or ‘Live Forever’. But there are a couple of brilliant moments, such as the modern-sounding lead single ‘In the Heat of the Moment’, which soars with a punch-the-air chorus, and the beautiful ballad, “The Dying of the Light”, which picks up where Oasis favourites ‘Slide Away’ and “Don’t Go Away” left off. Penultimate track ‘You Know We Can’t Go Back’, meanwhile, melds a Springsteen sentiment to atmospheric U2 guitar backing, before building to the album’s most anthemic chorus.
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One of the issues that will always muddy the response to Gallagher’s music results from his tendency to exaggerate. It earns him a heap of publicity – just as the barbs he trades with other artists do – but ultimately the music can never live up to such outlandish quotes. In his mind, minor detours from the singer-songwriter script become wild, experimental excursions; He’ll call something “out there” when it usually isn’t. “The Right Stuff” is excellent, but it’s not “space jazz”, while “The Ballad of the Mighty I” is certainly not one of “the best things [he’s] ever written”.
And because he builds unrealistic expectations, Gallagher is often described as an artist stuck in his comfort zone. But ‘The Right Stuff’, which was borne out of an unreleased collaboration with UK psychedelic production duo Amorphous Androgynous, shows that if pushed, Noel is capable of venturing into exciting new territory. No doubt it will lead some to question why he doesn’t do so more often.
Final Verdict: Hit
Chasing Yesterday is a remarkably solid record with a few great moments, and the listener with realistic expectations will find something to take from it. Gallagher has settled comfortably into solo life, making records at his own pace (note the gap between Chasing Yesterday and his 2011 debut) and finding a musical haven that will satisfy his own creative desires and those of his fans. And more than anything, it shows that if Noel really was chasing yesterday, he’d reform Oasis. Let’s hope he doesn’t.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds new album Chasing Yesterday is out Warner Records March 2nd pre order now via iTunes.
