ALBUM REVIEW: LIAM GALLAGHER – As You Were

Shane | 21 December 2017 | Reply

ALBUM REVIEW: LIAM GALLAGHER – As You Were
Warner Bros
October 2017
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

Having been subjected to Gallagher-the-younger’s arrogant chav posturing live a few years back, where he was more concerned with bitching about people having a chat in the far distance than he was in playing to the ardent fans who actually were interested right in front of him, I must confess that I was slightly looking forward to penning a shit review about how this first solo album (having ditched his post-Oasis Beady Eye band) was trading entirely on former glories.

No such luck: As You Were is a corker!

There are few who will argue that neither Liam nor his brother Noel (also recently solo – coincidence or something more sinister?) are likely to ever produce anything as good as those first couple of classic Oasis albums.

But Liam’s come into his own as a songwriter, and there are some great tracks on As You Were, despite it being overlong at 15 songs.

The familiar Beatles-referencing Oasis traits are all here, bolstered by a great production from Greg Kurstin, Dan Grech-Marguerat and Andrew Wyatt.

Wall Of Glass, Bold, For What It’s Worth and Come Back To Me are most reminiscent of Oasis; there’s a hint of Bob Dylan here and there; a sarcastic stomp to Greedy Soul, and as much as he may choose to deny it and badmouth him, it’s obvious from this track how much Liam has learnt from studying his older brother’s songwriting closely.

Sonically there are no wild leaps of faith – no synthwave triphop experiments, though the first of three deluxe bonus tracks, Doesn’t Have To Be That Way, does lean towards Kasabian territory, standing out like a sore thumb in the process amongst the acoustic guitar-rooted rest of the album.

Arrogant twat he may be at times, but there’s no denying Liam Gallagher can sing, and write a damn fine tune. As You Were indicates he’s no reason to miss his old band, and is developing quite a career for himself under his own name.