Album Review

Beady Eye – Different Gear, Still Speeding

• 8th Mar 2011

It has been the source for much comment and murmur, since Liam Gallagher announced the ‘formation’ of Beady Eye there has been a kind of hush in the air as fans and critics alike have been waiting for the album to drop.

And yes, this review will unquestionably contain the words Oasis and Noel.

Kicking off with the rollicking ‘Four Letter Word’ it is clear that this band need no real introduction and are straight down to business, a pounding and explosive track that perfectly showcases why Liam is still vital to music, possessing a distinct voice and an attitude that you could never get from anybody else.

And then, sure enough, we can wade in with the Oasis references, since it would have been nigh impossible for Beady Eye to have sounded different from Oasis, they certainly look quite a lot like Oasis and the serious rock n roll present in the opening track is followed by a handful of songs full of quite obvious nods towards The Beatles, so no real surprises there.

Be it Millionaire’s hints of sitar or The Roller’s borrowing from Lennon’s Instant Karma, where-as fourth track lays it flat out for anyone that hadn’t quite sussed it yet, titling it Beatles and Stones for anyone not already acquainted with Beady Eye’s musical influences.

The album truly hits its stride as it passes the halfway point, with the bluesy piano led stamp-along of Bring The Light that served as the bands first signs of life when it was unveiled last November, and it still stands up as an absolute belter and a lynchpin within the album that signifies the end of Oasis and the point where Beady Eye truly begins.

Followed by two of the strongest tracks on the album, slow burners For Anyone and Kill For A Dream are clear highlights right from the very first listen and only grow in importance with each repeated play, the acoustically strummed whimsy of For Anyone is Liam’s uplifting turn at being a little bit twee and the quietly rousing Kill For A Dream boldly stands shoulder to shoulder with many of Noel’s ‘lighter in the air’ moments.

And it is as we reach this point that the absence of Noel is most obvious, not in the worst of ways, yet through all of Beady Eye’s attempts to be their own band, there is still a clear lineage and progression between Oasis albums, and by now I find myself nostalgic for Noel’s kitchen sink drama and familiar, well worn voice.

By the time 10th track, Wigwam takes it’s bow, it feels that we have had our fill of Beady Eye, with it’s dramatic drum rolls, Oasis-like ‘sha-la-la-las’ and a beautiful building track that gives way to playful overindulgence reminiscent of Be He Now’s All Around The World, the 6 minute plus track is a perfectly fitting album closer… and then the next track starts.

The closing three tracks are all just as deserving as anything else on the album, perhaps even more-so in the case of The Beat Goes On and Morning Son, yet the by-numbers rock of Three Ring Circus is at odds with the closing strains of Wigwam and gives the impression that these were almost tacked on in a ‘bonus track’ fashion without much thought for the album’s structure.

It is hard to say that an album outstays its welcome when it only clocks in at a little over 50 minutes, but as the reverb drenched Morning Son brings the album to a close with its sparse acoustic shades of psychedelia 14 odd minutes after the initial false ending, perhaps Beady Eye gave too much away this time around and should have saved a handful of tracks for the next instalment or perhaps lavished us with them as b-sides that would rival the reputation Oasis had of doing much the same in their earlier days.

Despite this oversight, what we have here is another solid album in the tradition of Oasis, from England’s most talked about ‘new’ band of the moment, unlikely to win over any new fans, but with enough acolytes of Liam still tagging along for the ride, who needs them?