The former Oasis lead vocalist and former Stone Roses guitarist team up for your dad’s most anticipated album of the year.
Two giants of British rock music – Gallagher and Squire, collab for a new full-length album which is quite fun but plays it very safe.
For people not in the know, this collaboration might seem like a bit of a cash grab. Two well-known artists collaborating just for the sake of collaborating.
But Oasis in general are great admirers of The Stone Roses and it seems likewise.
Oasis brought John Squire out during their famous Knebworth show in 1994 and Squire performed Champagne Supernova with them.
And in 1997 Gallagher provided vocals on Love Me and Leave Me for Squires post Roses band – The Seahorses.
So, the two have history.
Liam Gallagher & John Squire is everything you would expect from these two and because of that there are few surprises. Culminating in an album that is very safe but still functions well as an enjoyable experience.
Despite Squire moving away from music in recent years to focus more on his painting. He provides some fantastic psychedelic guitar riffs.
Nearly every performance from Squire dances lightly on the ear, just groovy enough to warrant a dance and just chilled enough to kick your feet up to.
While you’re floating in space to Squires riffs, Gallaghers vocals bring you back down to orbit.
Gallaghers classic nasally vocals provide just enough grounding to the instrumentals.
While for the most part we float in orbit, occasionally Gallagher makes us crash land.
The lyrics are not the main attraction of this album, neither Gallagher or Squire are known for their tremendous song writing abilities. While the lyrics are fine most of the time, nothing to write home about but nothing bad either.
But we do get some silly moments that just take you out of the song. The biggest offender is without a doubt the fourth track I’m a Wheel where Gallagher shouts proudly from the rooftops that ‘I’m a wheel, I keep turning’. Or when half-way through the fifth track Just Another Rainbow he recites all the colours of the rainbow, like a well-behaved schoolboy.
If you are already a fan of either artist, you’ll enjoy this album and if you’re not you’ll still probably like this album. It’s just very inoffensive, it’s hard to hate this album but it’s also hard to love. You’ll listen to this album and think ‘this is fun’ and then never think about it again.
Feature image credit: Warner Music UK Limited
