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Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Not a full review but just a first impression on Noel's new work.

I am an Oasis fan, but I'm also very critical about them. In fact, on all of their records I can find some flaws. The main is that there was always for me a skipping track on every single Oasis-related (counting Liam's band in) album - even on Morning Glory. And I admit that even though I consider Noel the genius of melody. And now here we go, Noel's first solo album. No filler at all. Everything in its place.

From the epic start of Everybody's On The Run, through rock-anthemic quality of Dream On, classical oasisy ballad If I Had a Gun, brilliant jazzy country of The Death of You and Me, yet another big anthem being Record Machine (the last part makes you sing on top of your lungs), surprising disco-influenced brilliant What a Life!, set of mid tempo rockers (Soldier Boys - a protest song!, Broken Arrow with efortlessly flowing beat and melody an huge chorus and The Wrong Beach where I especially like the slightly fuzzy guitar - ending with yet another epic - Stop the Clocks.

Brilliant from start to finish, one can feel guilty when trying to think about the worst song of the bunch - there is no such a thing. I like the production (a lil bit poppy compared to Oasis records and maybe that's a good thing), I like the artwork, the lenght of the tracks and the whole album is perfect timed.

Truly, maybe this is written hastily, just after the album went public, but I just don't see any reason why shouldn't I call it the best Noel album - the best measure for that is probably that this record could and will atract many non-oasis listeners and hopefully stand the test of time and be a testament to Noel's ability as a creator of melodies.

live forever

It is a B-side to "Four Letter Word" - ladies and gentleman, Beady Eye's debut album, Different Gear, Still Speeding, is coming on 23rd February in Japan, 28th Feb in Europe and 1st March in the US. I like the vid and the track is very fine as well.

Tonight thank God...

I've known this song since I was a little boy. Always on my list of top Christmas tunes. And there was a line in the song - one sentence, nothing more - that hit me very, very hard. Being much younger myself I didn't know who sang the song, I didn't know who sang that particular line at the time. Now I know. But even then I did know it was something special, something big, something emocional.

...Tonight thank God it's them instead of you.

Now this singer is one of my favourites, one of the biggest rock stars of all times. It doesn't matter. Just listen to these guys, listen to that line. And think a little about it all. Thank God.

All the best to you
Tol

Well, it got me!



And yes, The Beatles are finally available on iTunes! Apple beware, your servers may go down...

BDI premiere!

So, here we go, any opinions? Hope you like rock 'n' roll!

Beady Eye's debut song is to download HERE.

Beady Eye track for download and Pulp reunion!

What a day! Tomorrow (Wednesday) we're gonna finally get the debut track from Beady Eye. Check the exact news on Beady Eye's website.

And what is more. For this have I not been prepared. Legendary british group Pulp is going to reform for the festival gigs in Spain and Great Britain. You can read more on Live4Ever.

Lord, I'm excited, and you?

BDI

There it is! The excitement on the biggest Oasis forum on the web (Live4ever Oasis Forum) could tell you that - the news about new Liam Gallagher's project are up!

Check their webpage HERE. It is really well done. And what do you think of the cover of the first single, announced to be released on 22nd November (not officially though)? Any reminscences from the past?

Beady Eye is the band which retains all former Oasis mateys but one, and you know who is that exception. OK now: will Liam succeed without Noel? The art of songwriting is something not very common these days I dare to say. Noel might not be in top form he was in the 90s, but still the latest record he made with Oasis showed what his contribution meant for Oasis. For me at least. The first half of the record was mainly written by Noel. And guess what... when I listen to the record for most cases I stop listening after 7 first tracks... the last four being written by either Liam, Gem or Andy. And it's not intentional, really.

Not much to say. Just a very special live forever for all those, who are gone. Thank you

Because singing is a prayer.

Yet another brick in the wall of wonder (Art of borrowing #3)

A friend of mine inspired me to write the 3rd part of the neverending story of musical similarities. She said:

hey, don't you think that Richard Ashcroft's song "Break the Nigh With Colour" has the similar verse vocal melody to that of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Greenday?

I've been listening to Richard Ashcroft (and his band, The Verve) maniacally whole summer. I didn't spot the similarity then, but now I see it and I'm loving the moment! Vocal melody, especially the first 3 or 4 notes from each song are almost the same. Then both songs go in two different directions, good for them.

This reminded me of yet another discovery.

The Beatles' 100 Greatest Songs compiled by Rolling Stone

I haven't been around for some time. I've got many records to review and hopefully I will be done with the reviews in the nearest time. Also have I an honour to welcome my friend Nir as the second author on this site =)

But for now: I've been hit by the phenomenon of The Beatles once again. Rolling Stone issued a special collector's edition of the magazine covering the work of Fab Four. Nothing that surprising apart from the fact that they made a list of 100 hundred best songs of John, Paul, George and Ringo. ONE HUNDRED. Do you know another band, that you can make a compilation like that? Of 100 songs? Not many bands reached even the number of 100 songs written in their whole career... and Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr have written and recorded above 200 original tunes in 7 years' time.

OK, I'm the biggest Beatles' fan around but tell me, isn't that just pure magic?

You can see the peak of the list here -> 10 best Beatles' songs by Rolling Stone

And for now I leave you with my latest discovery, Joe Strummer's solo stuff. It's arguably better than his work with The Clash, what do you think?

Music Is!

Just an impression from the great Richard Ashcroft, one of the finest songwriters of the past 20 years. Take care



Ah, and Arcade Fire is number 1 now in both US and the UK. There is faith =)

Art of borrowing (no 2)

For today I've got an obvious example of borrowing a musical motiff from another song. Although maybe not all of the listeners have noticed the similarity at the time, I'm sure David Guetta did see it and took Coldplay's famous piano riff on purpose. This is David Guetta's 2009 summer hit When Love Takes Over.


And here, the original - Coldplay and their Clocks:

Waka Waka vs. Wavin' Flag

Here we are, just after Football World Cup in Africa. What's left apart from sport emotions? Well, the songs. Last time I remember a song made specially for sport event to really catch the attention of worldwide audience was 1998 and Ricky Martin's The Cup of Life - maybe better known under the title Go go go (alle alle alle).

Happy B-Day!

Here's the very special day for me - the B-day having two meanings. It is international Beatles Day (Here you get some info), but what is much more important it is a birthday of a person very dear to my heart. I'd like too wish you all the best by posting this image =)

Csakis egy angyal lehetsz szőke hajjal, köszönöm, hogy vagy! =) Thank you!

The interNational Treasure

I don't quite believe what's going on in the world. The National's new album, High Violet, reached number 3 on Billboard 200. I love America, its attitude of working hard and believing in american dream. But I can't say their musical tastes match mine. I'm not into shallow pop or R'n'B. Or rap. These genres pretty much dominate on US charts. And now I look on the Wikipedia reading some facts about the newest The National offering. Well, if you don't know the band, I tell you: it's not R'n'B. It's not even a bit poppy. It's sad music, it's lazy music, it's profound music. It is melodic music. It's independent music, alternative. And what do I find? Number 3 in the US, number 5 in the UK. Right, UK is far more "rocky", but US? Well, I'm shocked but full of hope that good music, that album oriented music can still have a touch with millions. But what really made American's buy this obscure band?

The Masterplan

Music industry has been revealing its secrets to me for some time now. In the country that I live in, music singles charts come from voting. In the 90s, when I first learned this truth, when someone wanted their favourite song to be on top of the charts one must of send a postcard or make a call to the radio station and vote. So actually there are no singles charts as the Brits, Americans, Germans know them.

Welcome to the World of The Plastic Beach...

...and to the world of art pop.

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Bono once said about the difference between pop and rock: pop tells you that everything is all right and rock shows you what is still wrong and calls for revolution.

Well, if this definition applied to every kind of music, Plastic Beach might be called rock album. Or hard rock. New Damon Albarn's project criticizes consumerism and commercialism in the most intelligent way you could imagine - by becoming commercial and artificial itself. Under the trip-hop, modern beats and synths (Plastic Beach) one shall find libretto concerning microwave culture (Superfast Jellyfish), question of nature (Some Kind of Nature) or love in electric world (Stylo).

I think that most of the people have forgotten what this song is about. Because the melody itself is so good and memorable and the song is so famous.

And I know I just discovered the meaning of it. I feel it.