Album Review: As You Were, Liam Gallagher

With the demise of Beady Eye in 2014, Liam Gallagher admitted to feeling as if he had been summarily made redundant. He was, in his own mind, a guy who fronted a band. All of a sudden he was just Liam Gallagher – a midlife readjustment that hit harder than he had anticipated.

But, just as Noel’s exit from Oasis unleashed a new chapter of creativity, freedom from frontman obligations has had a liberating impact on the now 45 year old Gallagher Jr

To proclaim As You Were an artistic re-birth would be overstating the case – this is mostly still Liam venting in that charismatic whine as guitars chug and shimmer. On the other hand, it’s a textured, engaging listen – one that knocks into a cocked fedora the dreadful Beady Eye.

Credit for that must go in part to his new collaborators. Where Liam’s previous project was essentially Oasis-minus-Noel, this solo affair sees the singer – allegedly at the behest of manager/girlfriend Debbie Gwyther – throwing open the door to a wider range of influences. Single ‘For What It’s Worth’ was part-authored by Simon Aldred of Manchester chamber pop underachievers Cherry Ghost; much of the rest of the album is co-written with Lily Allen / Sia producer Greg Kurstin (also a contributor to the recent Foo Fighters LP).

Kurstin’s studio savvy blends surprisingly well with Liam’s man-of-the-people grit. As You Were screams out of the blocks with ‘Wall Of Glass’, Gallagher’s sand-paper yelp fluttering over romping fretwork. Here and elsewhere the lyrics wrestle with age and self doubt. After decades of sustained success, life-post Beady Eye has evidently given Liam pause for reflection – and this uncharacteristic vulnerability has caused him to raise his game.

Not that Oasis fans should scatter for the hills. The ghost of ‘Wonderwall’ is conjured on anthem-in-waiting ‘Bold’ – a mea culpa ballad that splices self-flaggatory lyrics and a celebratory chorus (like all the best pop writers Kurstin knows how to locate the sweet spot between sad and uplifting)

That isn’t to say Gallagher is completely redeemed. Lyrically, he remains indebted to Noel’s "bus-rhymes-with-fuss" school of writing. The otherwise beguiling ‘Chinatown’, for instance, nearly trips up at the outset as Liam shares the clunking observation, "well the cops are taking over/ while everyone’s in yoga."

Yet such lapses aren’t enough to detract from the overall sense of an artist who has decided he no longer wants to be a pastiche of his younger self and has taken his first serious creative leap in over a decade. Noel’s new record arrives in November. He’ll be doing well to eclipse As You Were’s double punch of autumnal contemplation and peerless pop swagger.

8/10

As You Were will be released on Warner Records on October 6.