Noel Gallagher - with strings attached

If I was Noel Gallagher, I’d probably be happy to get through any media interaction without the subject of Oasis being brought up. It probably doesn’t help that his own brother doesn’t let the issue of the band reforming lie. Barely a week goes by without Liam firing off some salvo about his sibling via Twitter. Last week the elder Gallagher branded his junior a “coward” for not picking up the phone (rumours have been circling that the brothers are warming to the idea of getting together for, possibly, a one-off gig, perhaps symbolically at Knebworth to mark the 30th anniversary of Definitely Maybe next year).

This week, The Sun reported a further exchange of salvos in the spat, with Noel insisting that he’s too busy, and that “anyway, Liam is full of shit”, adding “He knows as well as I do that he doesn’t want it either - what he does like doing is making me look a cunt.” The bottom line, he insists, is that his phone has remained silent and nobody has been in contact about a reunion. So that is that.

For those desperate to recreate their ’90s youth, Blur’s reformation may provide an acute stimulation to the brothers. The key here is nostalgia, with such exercises serving the mutual needs of artist and audience alike: one party gets to exploit a lucrative trip down memory lane (viz reformations of the likes of Cream and The Police), while the other revisits their own a time gone by they might cherish. 

For the Gallaghers, however, to a greater or lesser degree, there really isn’t any need for either to recreate a past that was of its moment, either in musical terms or the publicity it generated. At least that has seemed to be the position of the elder sibling, whose new album with his High Flying Birds, Council Skies, is out today. It’s Noel’s fourth record in the 12 years since he acrimoniously left ‘his brother’s band’, and while Liam has largely stuck with the Oasis formula with his subsequent releases (the Lennonish vocals, choppy Indie-light guitars, slavish adhesion to Scally casualwear) Gallagher Snr. has always appeared more progressive.

Quite how Council Skies is more progressive than its predecessors, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Chasing Yesterday and Who Built The Moon?, plus the bumper Record Store Day compilation Back The Way We Came, which included new material, is not easy to ascertain. That is not a criticism, by the way. Gallagher has a gift for edgy melodicism that makes his newest material seem familiar at the same time as requiring a keen listening ear to distinguish what’s different.

It’s that subtlety that makes Council Skies so utterly enjoyable, from start to finish. While it’s title (and title track) - inspired by a book by illustrator Pete McKee - might suggest a sombre sketch of northern despondency, like Richard Hawley’s Sheffield-inspired Standing At The Sky’s Edge, there is a reflective wistfulness to the 11 songs. Perhaps that’s due to the fact that string arrangements appear on at least half the tracks, giving them the inevitable cinematic expanse that orchestration does, accompanied more by acoustic guitars than Gallagher’s trademark electric chug of yore. That said, there are occasional bursts of amplification, such as the sumptuous radio hit Easy Now - a classic arm-waving, festival-friendly piece of singalong-a-Noel, which includes a brief “soaring” guitar solo that conjures up an image of Slash or Richie Sambora on a mountain top.

The title track - which has also benefited from decent radio airplay this year - is another string-soaked classic - and one whose arrangements underline the quality of co-producer Paul Stacey’s brilliance. Stacey has worked with Gallagher since Oasis’s Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants album, and has regularly given his client the room to expand his sound beyond the T-Rex-lite that established his former band.

Council Skies has an understated swagger about it, a confidence ultimately reflective of its creator’s own notable self-confidence (Noel remains one of the industry’s most entertaining interviewees). Open The Door, See What You Find is a good example of this, mixing tempos with chorused vocals that hook themselves into the brain. More follows on There She Blows!, with its Beatley chug and vocal harmonies that transport the listener back to the ’60s (with, dare I say it, a slight nod towards the Wall Of Sound).

Picture: Sharon Latham/noelgallagher.com

For many, Champagne Supernova will always be the gold standard of Gallagher’s sense of the epic. It’s something he seems capable of producing without even thinking about it. Trying To Find, here, goes down a similar path, but of all the tracks on the album most redolent of northern gloom, it is this one. My one complaint is that, at just over three minutes, it’s too short. There is more in this string-infused vein with We’re Gonna Get There In The End and Trying To Find A World That's Been And Gone, both tracks that appeared last year in what felt like demo form as direction of travel to this new collection. Other gems include Think Of A Number (not, to my knowledge, a hat-tip to Johnny Ball), and the soulful I’m Not Giving Up Tonight.

Arguably, though, the drop-dead highlight of this album is Dead To The World. Appearing early on in the running list, it builds from a slowburn opening on a bed of - yes - more strings - to give a woozy, Bacharach-like feel. It even prompted brother Liam to tweet: “How can such a mean spirited little man write such a beautiful song?”. Hardly a sign of a thaw in their relationship, but equally, a glimmer of light that the love between two brothers may not have been lost completely.