More On The Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Preview

Sitting in the midtown Manhattan offices of Mercury Records listening to a 5-track sampling of songs from Noel Gallagher's upcoming solo album, I can't help but wonder. Funnily enough I'm not wondering what these songs would have sounded like as Oasis tracks. In fact, I'm wondering why it took so long for Gallagher to make the leap as a solo artist.

"I had perfected that role," Gallagher told me a few weeks ago at a swanky rooftop party in SoHo to celebrate his new venture, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. "I was quite happy to be the guy on the side of the stage, playing guitar and singing the odd song. It's actually a pain in the arse to have to be up front. Talk to me after a few shows. I might be moaning about I've made a huge mistake."

But from what I'm hearing, to put it plainly, he doesn't need Oasis.

Gallagher's tour is selling out everywhere, and he quickly added a second Beacon Theater show here when demand for tickets to the first, November 14th, show were white hot.

Certainly Gallagher is the Great White Hope of Oasis fans. While many were glad to see Gallagher's brother Liam soldier on with his former-Oasis bandmates in Beady Eye, most were not surprised when that band sputtered rather than took off like a rocket. But even casual Oasis fans always expected great things from The Chief.

And so the pace of the elder-Gallagher's ticket sales and album pre-sales have far outstripped those of his rivals, and perhaps even the last Oasis album and tour.

And deservedly so. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is the first new music I've heard in ages that warrants real excitement and anticipation.

"Everybody's On The Run" is huge, with the giant sound of a chior over a jagged beat set to an epic Gallagher melody. "If I Had A Gun" is simple in structure and composition, but has a universal nature that -- like many of Gallagher's best songs -- belies that simplicity. "AKA... What A Life" and "The Death Of You And Me", like "If I Had A Gun" are all over the Internet these days, but heard on a decent stereo system they are nothing short of glorious. Best of all, they take left turns sonically where in Gallagher's previous incarnation he might have gone a more straightforward route.

And then there's "Record Machine." While great quality demos of the song circulate, the song -- the one that Liam Gallagher never got to add vocals to during the making of the last Oasis album, electing to return to the UK from LA to get married instead -- is, like all of these songs, under 4 minutes. Producer Dave Sardy has stripped things back in many respects. But it's no less epic. Sporting a smoother, more intimate vocal than the demo and strings that come in almost at the beginning of the song, "Record Machine" is the Oasis song Noel Gallagher hasn't released in ages.

Which again begs the question: What if Noel Gallagher had jettisoned the Oasis machine after "Be Here Now"? We likely would not have the gotten the maturity in both production and songwriting that we have here, but clearly Gallagher enjoyed the challenge of showing just what he's capable of on his own in making "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds", delivering some of his best songs in ages and certainly the strongest vocal performances of his career.

In the end, though, all of that is just a parlour game. What's most amazing about what I've heard so far from this record is how it is classic and familiar while also retaining its edge and sounding fresh. That's no small feat.

In a week or so I'll have the entire album in my hands. I'll write more then. I can't wait.

Source: www.examiner.com