Back in 1995 it was Blur who won the infamous chart battle with their Britpop rivals Oasis when their song Country House beat Roll With It to number one, but Oasis who won the war after they played two era-defining gigs at Knebworth Park the following summer. A quarter of a century later it’s happening again. Though Noel Gallagher’s post-Oasis solo output has so far comfortably outsold his estranged younger brother’s, it’ll be Liam who looks like the overall victor when he reappears at Knebworth for two more vast shows next weekend.
So the hard work is done, and it hardly matters what this third solo album sounds like as long as Wonderwall gets another airing in Hertfordshire. That means Gallagher Jr sounds relaxed, comfortable in his almost-50-year-old skin, and happy to be a bit weird.
Weird is a relative term in Oasis-land of course – he’s still some distance from getting the Mongolian throat singers in – but the parka-clad lager-chuckers may yet double-take when the first voices on C’mon You Know turn out to be a cute children’s choir. That might well be a wimpy mandolin on the breezy, jangly It Was Not Meant to Be and there’s cello, flute and a saxophone solo on Moscow Rules. I’m Free is a positively bonkers mix of thunking rock aggression and dub reggae, climaxing with Gallagher yelling: “You’re the soul prisoner taking in the info wars!”
Even so, he still has both feet firmly wedged in classic rock. There are echoes of both You Can’t Always Get What You Want and Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones, and he goes back to the Stones’ love of Bo Diddley on the even more retro World’s in Need. Beatles spotters will notice the man who named his firstborn son Lennon pilfering a lyric from A Day in the Life on the surprisingly funky Diamond in the Dark, while the energetic highlight Better Days borrows Ringo Starr’s drum beat from Tomorrow Never Knows. More likely this one is yet another snook cocked at Noel, as it also sounds very like his Chemical Brothers collaboration Setting Sun.
Admirably open about needing help on the songwriting front, it sounds like regular co-writers Greg Kurstin and Andrew Wyatt have had plenty of freedom this time, while Dave Grohl gets writing and drum credits on the powerful single Everything’s Electric. It all sets him up perfectly for a triumphant return to the Knebworth stage.
