Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - The Death of You and Me

It is, of course, impossible to listen to either Gallagher brother’s solo offering without comparing it to Oasis, so to get that out of the way – The Death of You and Me is up there with anything Oasis released after Be Here Now. Taking a very similar sound to arguably Noel’s finest song in the past decade, The Importance of Being Idle, this is music to wear a suit to, preferably whilst drinking martini and smoking a cigar in a hazy 1950s club. In black and white, obviously.

The next unavoidable comparison is of course to Liam Gallagher and Beady Eye, who, rather predictably I’m afraid, fall far short here. Their debut, Different Gear, Still Speeding, had nothing wrong with it – Four Letter Word and The Roller in particular would have sat nicely on almost any Oasis album – but there was always a sense that something, or rather someone, was missing. Any worries that the reverse would apply are dismissed entirely by the first chorus here. I doubt anybody who has ever heard both Champagne Supernova and Ain’t Got Nothin’ expected Liam’s solo work to be stronger than Noel’s, and this has been confirmed with The Death of You and Me’s three-and-a-half minutes of pop genius.

Containing all the elements that made Noel Gallagher’s songwriting so addictive in the first place, but free of the shackles that Oasis’ reputation and tension created, it sounds familiar yet fresh. A brass solo section sits brilliantly alongside a big chorus, the relatively simple music and lyrics as always complementing perfectly, not needing to be anything that they’re not.

Noel’s collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous, released next year, could provide something we never thought we’d see – Noel Gallagher the experimentalist – but in the meantime, if the High Flying Birds’ release in October lives up to this first single, it’s going to be one of the albums of the year. A solid 9/10.

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