The Album Review Club - Week #196 (page 1316) - Aja - Steely Dan

Chasing Yesterday – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

I bought the first three Oasis albums, but that third, Be Here Now, was a hit and miss affair. I never bought another of their albums and lost touch with Noel Gallagher’s music.

“Riverman” is a fantastic start to Chasing Yesterday. The acoustic strumming is reminiscent of “Wonderwall” and it quickly develops into a delicious groove. The guitar solos are great and then sax seems to float out of nowhere. Some instrumental solos seem bolted on to songs, but not this, it’s really nicely done. It’s sounds like something a Mancunian would put together after visiting the Mississippi. Or maybe standing by the Thames.

Both of “The Girl With X-Ray Eyes” and “The Dying of the Light” have a bittersweet, melancholy feel that I enjoyed. Better still is “The Right Stuff”, which starts with another acoustic shuffle, but with its bursts of sax and serpentine bass, eases into something totally different to the rest of the songs. And it’s all the better for it.

There’s not a bad track on this album, but its problem is that it starts off with what is probably the best song (OK, maybe joint best with “The Right Stuff”) but most of the tracks don’t measure up to this level. Again, there’s nothing bad here, but aside from the four mentioned, the remaining six were all a bit workmanlike and lacking inspiration.

I stand by what I said a few days ago in that this was a good choice by @BlueHammer85. It’s something a bit more modern than the selections we’ve had for the past couple of months, and it’s a solid album. But I don’t feel there’s enough to give it more than 7/10.
 
RobMCFC said:
Chasing Yesterday – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

I bought the first three Oasis albums, but that third, Be Here Now, was a hit and miss affair. I never bought another of their albums and lost touch with Noel Gallagher’s music.

“Riverman” is a fantastic start to Chasing Yesterday. The acoustic strumming is reminiscent of “Wonderwall” and it quickly develops into a delicious groove. The guitar solos are great and then sax seems to float out of nowhere. Some instrumental solos seem bolted on to songs, but not this, it’s really nicely done. It’s sounds like something a Mancunian would put together after visiting the Mississippi. Or maybe standing by the Thames.

Both of “The Girl With X-Ray Eyes” and “The Dying of the Light” have a bittersweet, melancholy feel that I enjoyed. Better still is “The Right Stuff”, which starts with another acoustic shuffle, but with its bursts of sax and serpentine bass, eases into something totally different to the rest of the songs. And it’s all the better for it.

There’s not a bad track on this album, but its problem is that it starts off with what is probably the best song (OK, maybe joint best with “The Right Stuff”) but most of the tracks don’t measure up to this level. Again, there’s nothing bad here, but aside from the four mentioned, the remaining six were all a bit workmanlike and lacking inspiration.

I stand by what I said a few days ago in that this was a good choice by @BlueHammer85. It’s something a bit more modern than the selections we’ve had for the past couple of months, and it’s a solid album. But I don’t feel there’s enough to give it more than 7/10.
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Nice summary that

‘Riverman’ and ‘The Right Stuff’ definitely the stand out Floyd-esque tracks, such cool songs

My personal favourites are ‘Lock All The Doors’ and ‘You Know We Can’t Go Back’ rockier Oasis type tracks

But I get why many prefer the former
 
The Britpop era was an interesting one for me, coinciding as it did with the merciful end of my first marriage and a brief period of "rediscovering" myself and living it up with all that entails. In truth I was a little bit too old to be behaving as I did and it wasn't really me. I was much happier when I met my current partner and buggered off abroad for a couple of years.

Central to that period of course were Oasis, the standard bearers of the movement although I think that Suede have stood the test of time much better. There was no doubting the quality of Definitely, Maybe to be fair and although I'm not really sentimental like that Wonderwall remains (quietly) our song. Memories of city fans contriving lyrics for Alan Ball to it though in what must have been a brief period of ridiculous optimism or outright denial about the disaster that was his reign.

The time spent living abroad we lost touch with what was happening musically at home although I do have vague memories of buying a new Oasis release when we were there. I can't remember which one though and in truth I remember then thinking that it was very quickly a case of rapidly diminishing returns with them despite me loyally listening to subsequent releases. The best stuff that Oasis did after the first couple of albums were the ones were Noel took the lead vocal.

I didn't have much intention of following the solo careers when they split up but my partner bought me the first High Flying Birds CD for Christmas and I liked it. I can't say it slayed me but it is good enough. Even so, I still didn't really follow subsequent releases.

So, it's good to have been forced to listen to this album. As others have said, it starts really well, Riverman is a great track. First impressions were good generally and subsequent listens have reinforced my view. There is actually something quite oddly comforting about listening to Noel Gallagher. Maybe, like with Oasis first time round it's the familiarity of lyrical phrases and the music (Riverman is a not so distant cousin to Wonderwall after all). He's not a genius lyrically but knows how to write a song and has a decent voice, much better than Liam's. Never straying too far from cliche and mundanity with the lyrics they still feel genuine.

I'm not a fan of skipping tracks but on this album there are none that I think aren't worth bothering with. The quality isn't quite maintained all the way through but I'll be keeping this and exploring the rest of his solo work. It's a solid 7 from me.

Like you do I've let autoplay roll after I've listened a couple of times. Besides being reminded how good some of early Oasis was there's also been a couple of Liam's solo tracks which I don't think are anywhere near as good. Ultimately I don't think I can get on with his voice nowadays. Another bit of a pet hate on the playlists was the solo stuff of Richard Ashcroft, Verve were another band for me who had a bit too long a moment and he seems to take himself way too seriously as a solo artist.
 
Chasing Yesterday



I think I called Oasis, Beatles lite when I reviewed ‘The Masterplan’.To me NGHFB soundlike Oasis lite.It starts as others have mentioned with the intro to‘Wonderwall’.Noel’s voice while ok is nowhere as good as Liam’s ,especially on the rockier tracks.It’s not an unpleasant album but nothing really grabbed me and it just became background music.To me Noel’s writing seems very formulated and to try and make this more interesting he’s added a few additional instruments such as the Sax.

I was never a big Oasis fan but there’s nothing I hear that tops anything they recorded.



6/10
 
Not listened to this album for a while. I’ve always liked Noel’s solo stuff, more so than Liam for reasons mentioned above. I find some of the sax stuff on this album a tad irritating - I think Fog picked up on this in his initial critique, but I guess it’s part of the overall sound, and more divorced from Oasis so it is what it is.
I like Noel’s style of guitar playing it always seems so relaxed and inviting. There are a few real stand out tracks for me, Riverman, Lock all the Doors, and the Right Stuff being the main ones. Not the strongest lyrical album, but I love its overall feel. Solid 8/10 for me - great choice BH
 
I've never been a fan so it was with some trepidation that I listened to this. Riverman was a predictable start but the ending was rather nice, enjoyed it immensely. What followed though was an adject lesson in how not to write songs, how not to play guitar and how not to sing. He really doesn't do any of these very well.

The rest of the album could have been one song. There was no real change just guitar, whinny voice and predictable lyrics. What happened after Riverman? A fantastic ending.

It gets a 4.
 
BimboBob said:
I've never been a fan so it was with some trepidation that I listened to this. Riverman was a predictable start but the ending was rather nice, enjoyed it immensely. What followed though was an adject lesson in how not to write songs, how not to play guitar and how not to sing. He really doesn't do any of these very well.

The rest of the album could have been one song. There was no real change just guitar, whinny voice and predictable lyrics. What happened after Riverman? A fantastic ending.

It gets a 4.
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Riiiiight - more like you listened to a first few mins of ‘Riverman’ and jumped in for another predictable Bimbo slating of a Album, and if you credit that song then surely you would credit ‘The Right Stuff’ as that really is comparable

However, speaking of the most mundane, soul destroying, slow, repetitive album of all time - you should try Sule Skerry - still my favourite one to fall asleep too in a state of depression
 
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BlueHammer85 said:
Riiiiight - more like you listened to a first few mins of ‘Riverman’ and jumped in for another predictable Bimbo slating of a Album, and if you credit that song then surely you would credit ‘The Right Stuff’ as that really is comparable

However, speaking of the most mundane, soul destroying, slow, repetitive album of all time - you should try Sule Skerry - still my favourite one to fall asleep too in a state of depression
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Don't take it personally mate...as I said, the end of Riverman is rather nice. The rest not so. Not everyone gets Noel/ Liam or Oasis. I gave it all 4 listens. Still did nothing to me.

On the Sule Skerry point. Well done. I like it you don't. There really is no need for the sarcasm or vitriol is there? It's comments like this that make it seem not worth visiting this thread. You seem to have a massive hang up about me and my posting. I have no idea why. Accept that some of your music you like I don't, visa versa and fucking move on. It really is getting tiresome.
 
BimboBob said:
Don't take it personally mate...as I said, the end of Riverman is rather nice. The rest not so. Not everyone gets Noel/ Liam or Oasis. I gave it all 4 listens. Still did nothing to me.

On the Sule Skerry point. Well done. I like it you don't. There really is no need for the sarcasm or vitriol is there? It's comments like this that make it seem not worth visiting this thread. You seem to have a massive hang up about me and my posting. I have no idea why. Accept that some of your music you like I don't, visa versa and fucking move on. It really is getting tiresome.
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I liked Sule Skerry and gave it a fair and favourable review - was just jesting of course, don’t take it personally :)
 
Not going to be able to vote on this one because I’ve been away all week unfortunately and only had one listen.
I was surprised how tired and samey it now seems.
Maybe a few more listens might have improved my opinion.
 
Only listened a couple of times this week but add that to the 100s before. I liked the album when it was released and still do. I thought it quite a bit more sophisticated musically than Oasis and particularly liked his use of Sax and Clarinet. A few have mentioned River Man and The Right Stuff as stand out songs and I agree with that. All the songs on this album were even better live. There were some indications of where Noel would head with his music on this and I have to admit to disliking the albums that followed. For me this saw him at a post Oasis peak that he couldn’t maintain.
Nice pick mate and I need no help with VAR to give it a 7. If I could give half points it would be 6.5 but I’m feeling generous.
 
I’ve previously said I am a bit take it or leave with Oasis, their timing was such that I was off doing and listening to other stuff when they became big. Of late I’ve even found some of their bigger hits quite grating as they’ve become a bit hackneyed over the years, not their fault of course. So, I approached this with some trepidation. However, I was pleasantly surprised. There is nothing very profound, but I found it an easy and often enjoyable listen. Occasionally it felt a bit more like listening to Weller lite rather than Oasis lite.

Overall, I thought the production was decent, I think he produced it himself? The additional instrumentation was a bit hit and miss for me, sometimes it worked other times less so. For example, the opening bit of Sax on Riverman was redolent of the pastiche soundtrack you get in 80’s noir detective series as the lonely gumshoe wanders down the rainy lamplit street at the end of the episode. Having said it sounds a bit Weller lite, there is little attempt at the sparseness that Weller sometimes deploys very well. I couldn’t decide if the fussier bits of various songs were Gallagher just trying to push himself a bit, which is laudable, or despite all his success it displayed a bit of a lack of confidence in that he felt he needed to add something ‘more’ by way of colour or sophistication.

Vocally, for all of Liam’s deserved reputation as a great frontman, I quite like Noel’s vocals. The fact he isn’t a great singer adds a bit of vulnerability especially to the slower and quieter moments.

It did feel a bit samey at times and often began to float over me, but not in a bad way if that makes sense. I didn’t have the urge to turn it off at any point or even skip a track.

As for individual tracks, I agree with many that Riverman is a good start albeit the jury is out on the sax for me. Lock all the doors and the Right Stuff were enjoyable even if let down a little bit by the lyrics. On the subject of which, the lyrics overall are nothing to write home about and occasionally a bit crass but for some reason this didn’t bother me in a way it often does. I think it helps that he doesn’t set out his stall to claim he’s saying anything revolutionary. The Mexican was one of the tracks where I think the additional instrumentation worked well and overall there was nothing that really grated even if it was just washing over me at times.

Finally, I don’t think anyone else has mentioned it, but I liked Ballad of The Mighty I, not sure it is in the right place in the playing order, but I enjoyed it as much as anything else on the album. I recognise I am a bit more poppy than many on this thread, which might explain it. Had a look and it turns out that it’s Johnny Marr guesting on it, so what’s not to like about that.

This is not something I would have listened to of my own volition so again another good nomination. This gets a solid 6/10 from me and if some of his other solo work comes up on auto-play I will give it a listen rather than automatically go for the skip button.
 
Quite often it is a case of the bigger the band, the more divisive the opinions on them can be. And Oasis for me was one of those. Those that liked them really liked them, those that didn't, just didn't. There was seemingly no middle ground. I was in the second lot, whatever the reasons, who cares at this point, hardly matters. Where it did leave me with this one however, was either having to get over that, or find a way to ignore it i.e divorce this album from its Oasis background.

I was surprised how easy the album made that. Not denying there are recognisable styles and parts, but it didn't feel it was trying to do that, or milk it, or use it in expectation that it is what fans will look for, if anything that side of it felt inevitable and natural. But it was in the differences I thought it came to its own, the additional instruments, a layer or two, and for me, more pleasant singing/vocals.

Decent enough indy album that you can link to Oasis if you want to, or you can listen to on its own merit, entirely up to you. That isn't easy to pull off.

As an album itself, it has some fairly average bits that just blended into the background. But they werent unpleasant. It has a few good songs too, dying of the light being the standout for me. At times felt quite generic, but again, nothing that I minded having on. Overall, a good 6.
 
Just the 11 votes this week at an average of 6.18 for Chasing Yesterday by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds which is comfortably mid-table. Thanks to @BlueHammer85 for another good nomination and a decent listen this week.

Next up is @Saddleworth2. At your convenience, sir.
 
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