Liam Gallagher
As You Were
(Warner Brothers)

I believe wholeheartedly that we will have another Oasis album and tour sometime within the next decade. I say this only because we saw Guns N’ Roses get back together and I always thought a Slash and Axl reunion would be more of a longshot than the Gallagher brothers making amends. At some point the money will be too much to pass up, and they will give in, and go down like the Hindenburg. Until then we get Noel Gallagher and the High Flying Birds, and Liam Gallagher’s solo stuff via his debut album, As You Were. The record is a gaudy 15 songs (three bonus tracks) as if he was saving them for this most appropriate time to give his brother the finger.

It’s unfair really. We will constantly compare all of the Gallagher’s projects to Oasis. It will be like that until the end of time, but that doesn’t mean As You Were isn’t a good album. Gallagher writes great songs in the same distinctly British way he did with his previous projects, big hooks, dreamy vocals, and Beatles-esque melody.

The harmonica comes out in full force on “Wall of Glass” with a sneaky backseat rock n roll. “Greedy Soul,” and “Paper Crown” are well-written, verse-chorus-verse songs that you just don’t here on the radio anymore. “I Get By” is an energized rocker with a danceable beat with the Brit-pop blueprint in tow. “Chinatown” slows it down with a vulnerable and intimate acoustic guitar and pulsing bass drum. “I’ve All I Need” is definitely a U2 moment, and is one of the better songs on the album, but even moments like that cannot overshadow the great “When I’m in Need”. The song begins with a slow burning drive when mid-song, an orchestra takes over building into a crescendo that would make Paul McCartney proud. The middle finger to Noel is up and proud too.