Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Okay, you may remember that a few weeks ago I posted a YouTube video for the song "If I Had a Gun" by this band.  It's a good song -- something you can sing to.  I'd like to talk a little more about the band now, though.

First of all, if you aren't privvy to your 90's British rock, Noel Gallagher is pretty much one half of arguably the most famous rock band of the 90's:  Oasis.  (Damon Albarn of Blur would probably like to have a word with me regarding that statement, I'm sure.)

In any case, Oasis has come close to breaking up about 500 times since their inception, and this time seems like the most serious of splits.  Both of the brothers have new bands now, and that's a first.  So there you have it.

To me, Liam was always the one who in my eyes was Oasis' lead singer, even though the two of them shared the responsibility.  I always liked his voice better -- he's the one singing Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, and pretty much every other Oasis song that was a major hit.  I didn't like Noel's singing, at least not then.

Oddly enough, almost any list of "The Greatest Oasis Songs" will list "Don't Look Back In Anger" as the -greatest- Oasis song.  Likewise, any list of simply the greatest rock songs will have that song on the list as the highest ranking Oasis entry.  I say it's odd because that song is sung by Noel.  It was the first time he was the lead vocals on an Oasis track.  I never liked that song much.  Certainly not as much as Wonderwall or Champagne Supernova...or Go Let It Out for that matter.

So I was surprised when I actually liked "If I Had a Gun...", which is the first song that I heard from Noel's new band.  He wasn't singing like the Noel from Oasis.  Quite honestly, he's singing more like the -Liam- from Oasis.  Ironic, that.  It was one of those cases where the song was good enough that I knew I had to hear the rest of the album.  It was almost a guarantee I would like something else from it.

The thing is, when I listen to this album, I hear Oasis.  Depending on which hipster music guru you listen to, it's possible Noel had all these songs written even before Oasis broke up.  So there's really nothing aside from the band's name that doesn't make them Oasis to begin with.  It's a shame, really.

Anyway, this is my favorite song off the album (thus far):



The intro is the best part.  All the way up to "I'm gonna take that tiger outside for a ride..."  What a brilliant line.