Album Review: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – “Chasing Yesterday”

By: Daniel Melfi – 

Recently, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds treated post-punk fans of the late-‘90s to more of what they craved most – Oasis, or the next best thing, Noel Gallagher’s new solo album Chasing Yesterday.

The cast has not changed much from the debut album, still featuring former Oasis session pianist Mike Rowe, alongside Jeremy and Paul Stacey on drums and bass respectively. Tracks from the album bear close resemblance to Gallagher’s former band, baiting listeners’ expectations of similarity from the past.

Without long-time producer Oasis producer Dave Sardy, Noel produced the album himself, along with Amorphous Androgynous who produced two tracks on the album, familiar names from their anticipated collaborations with Noel back in 2012 before they got scrapped. The duo team up with Gallagher on “The Right Stuff” and “The Mexican”, the latter being one of the more energetic sunlight-friendly tracks of the album— with a guitar riff ripped from Queens Of The Stone Age lineage. Gallagher recorded the 10-track album last year in London at some of the 47-year-old Brit’s favourite recording locations at  Strangeways and Abbey Road Studios.

The album kicks off with a bluesy Oasis-like rendition, along with some reliably talented guitar work on “Riverman”. “In the Heat of the Moment” possesses an arena-ready chorus, an easy selection for album’s first single that sparks out of the speakers.

The familiar fondness for the good ol’ days of which Gallagher has so fondly spoken become undeniably present on “The Girl With The X-Ray Eyes” and “The Dying Of The Light,”, both hedging close to formula for would-be dream-team of Dave Grohl and Noel Gallagher.

Criticism and thorny personality aside, Noel’s timeless songwriting and witty charm filters through the lyrics, “She never hears me when I speak / I gotta find out where that magic sleeps,” he says in “Lock All The Doors”, a song written two decades ago for Oasis. His permanently boastful smirk shines through the microphone on “You Know We Can’t Go Back”: “I’ll drag you from the one horse town that’ll bring you down / And I love you for all time.” 

“Ballad Of The Mighty I” concludes the album, and features Johnny Marr of The Smiths on guitar in reliably excellent form, with a slightly ironic salute to the glory days.

Oasis fans across the globe will have to sulk in pubs for a little time longer before a reunion of the Gallagher brothers, but in the meantime Chasing Yesterday should fill the void. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds perform in Toronto at the Sony Centre on May 3^rd.

Essential Tracks: “In The Heat of the Moment”, “You Know We Can’t Go Back”, ” and “Ballad of the Mighty I”