The Gallagher Bros: Post-Oasis Music

Since Oasis disbanded about a decade ago, Noel and Liam Gallagher have been releasing music of varying quality and impact.   I'd like to give an assessment of the two siblings' musical output since the popular British band split up.  


Noel

Noel Gallagher formed Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds which has released three studio albums since its inception.  The common trend among these three albums is the tendency to have a fair number of really solid tracks with some lesser filler.  The self titled debut (2011) had two great tracks that really stand out:  "Everybody's On the Run", the album opener, and "If I Had A Gun."  Melodically, these two tracks are superb and lyrically very strong.   Unfortunately, much of the rest of this debut is forgettable.  The same can be said of Noel's next two albums.  Chasing Yesterday (2015) contains "River Man" and "In the Heat of the Moment", possibly examples of the pinnacle of Noel's songwriting career.  The production also is a great leap forward from the debut album of the band.  In 2017, Noel released Who Built the Moon?  It was quite a diversion from his previous material and harkened back to his experimentation with the Chemical Brothers, especially the opening track, "Fort Knox".  It contains three phenomenal tracks:  "Holy Mountain", "It's A Beautiful World", and "She Taught Me How to Fly."  These tracks alone make the album worthwhile to listen to, but the rest is pretty unspectacular.  


Liam

Liam Gallagher formed Beady Eye after Oasis split up.  They released two albums.  The first one was excellent, Different Gear, Still Speeding (2011).  It had a lot of catchy, melodic material.  My personal favourite was "Millionaire", which is a Beatles-esque beauty.  Their follow-up BE (2013), had two excellent tracks, the opener, "Flick of the Finger" and "Second Bite of the Apple."  The production here is excellent and sounds like an improvement over the first, which is already a good album, but there is a lot of dismal filler on it.

Beady Eye disbanded soon after the release of BE, and Liam went on to solo work.  His 2017 release As You Were is, in my opinion, the best of all post-Oasis Gallagher brother material.  It is consistent throughout and very melodically pleasing.  The best tracks, "Wall of Glass" and "Paper Crown" are absolute dynamite songs.


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Only time will tell whether the Gallagher brothers will match the popularity of their Oasis days.  They are on the right track, especially Liam.  With more consistency in their albums, they can definitely achieve greatness.  I look forward to seeing Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds in concert in August 2019.  They are interesting characters, not to everyone's taste or patience.  They have been great at channeling the melodies and lyrical themes of 60's era rock, especially the Beatles.  They have both continued to grow as song-writers and it will be interesting to see what directions they take in the future.