Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Who Built the Moon?, A Review (2017)

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Who Built the Moon?, A Review (2017)

By: Erreh Svaia
Rock N Roll Animal

Ex Oasis guitarist and a singer latest record is surely an exotic surprise, as Gallagher delivers an inspired and exciting collection of songs that demand to be heard to be believed, a confusing ball of psychedelia and British pop, beginning with a colorful trip on the mind blowing Fort Knox, a piece of postmodern psychedelia supposedly based on the awesome Power by postmodern hip hop producer Kanye West, the interesting turn here is the fact that it also sounds influenced by the danceable post punk of the mighty Primal Scream and the loop experiments of the Beatles circa their Revolver album, an ultra-modern piece of 60s pop that remains a musical paragon that has followed Noel since his Oasis days, but wait, the surprises doesn't end up there, as the next song titled Holy Mountain is another major jewel here, named perhaps after the Alejandro Jodorowsky classic surreal movie, or perhaps after the Sleep record, who knows? The song is an interesting mash up of so many things from proto punks like Hawkwind (especially their classic Silver Machine that featured the almighty Lemmy Kilmister), the New York Dolls (especially their second album with Who Are the Mystery Girls) and even Van Der Graaf Generator singer Peter Hammill during his Nadir's Big Chance record, all this sung in a kind of The Who's Roger Daltrey muscular style, but what's more engaging form this piece is the huge amount of confidence exuded by Gallagher in a totally fabulous performance.

Keep On Reaching has a charismatic upbeat that helps the strange piece stand proud, a mix of Steve Miller Band´s magic and Fleetwood Mac cave man like horn section circa Tusk sung by Pete Townshend, if such thing is possible of being conceived, featuring lyrics referring Stevie Wonder's classic Higher Ground, but is on It's a Beautiful World where the band loses a little bit of momentum, a piece full of influences from Chemical Brothers, and post punk stuff like Simple Minds and U2, a radio ready sure hit but one that deviates from the initial ambition of the album, a formula repeated on the New Order like She Taught Me How to Fly that might remind you of some stuff by the Strokes, LCD Soundsystem or even Disco 2000 era Pulp.

A nice 60s touch is immediately felt on Black & White Sunshine, one can even here a little bit of classic Stones here and there, while on The Man Who Built the Moon, Gallagher displays the sort of darkness that clearly aligns him as the obscure part of the Oasis brothers team, the album ends with another somber note carried by the dark God Help Us All, a piece that perfectly reflects again that gloomy side that Noel put against Liam's brighter Live Forever side, on the whole Who Built the Moon? Is a totally satisfying effort, still a confusing mess, but a wonderful one, one that perfectly displays Gallagher artistic vision as a promising one.