Reviews

Far from being the Oasis: the sequel, Beady Eye (or Oasis minus Noel) have relished being away from Oasis merry-go-round of non-captivating releases. Coming out with all guns blazing, bursting with optimism and rousing radio rock anthems.

Liam’s vocals are hard to distance from his former band, but these songs bound along with a new found spring in their step. His snarling elongated syllables have real bite and vigor on feel good, up-tempo tunes such as album opener Four Letter Word and Standing On The Edge Of The Noise. What with the jovial honky tonk piano wielding Bring The Light and the light feeling of For Anyone, Beady Eye have clearly lightened up and are having fun once again.

Sadly the latter portion of Still Speeding Different Gear has very little of standout quality. Thankfully there is enough decent tunes in it’s outward 9 such as the addictive single Roller (despite its lack of melodies) and the “influences on sleeve” tribute to the Beatles & Stones. In fact they are less on their sleeves and more on one of those gigantic TV’s circling Piccadilly circus.

The success of this album lies in re-invigorating 60′s guitar pop and is some cases, blatantly copying it! Exhibit A: Three Ring Circus/Getting Better (the Beatles); Exhibit B: Beatles & Stones/My Generation (The Who).

With a whole raft of good tunes and a return to some more carefree, less pressured days, this album can only be described as a success.

You might fear the worst from the first album from either of the Brothers Gallagher since Oasis’ breakup but there are times during Different Gear, Still Speeding where, against accepted wisdom, you might wonder if Liam might have been the real musical tour-de-force in his old band.

That’s all hogwash, of course, but with vocals in good form and those falling horns that greet you before leading you into the rocking verses of Four Letter Word, it does seem at times closer to the Oasis of old then Oasis themselves ever did in their final years. Perhaps part of the reason for that are those old influences that heavily influenced Oasis are back featuring probably more prominently than ever – hell, if you cut open The Roller I’m sure you’re going to find some All You Need Is Love DNA in there.

There’s a bit of a swagger in Wind Up Dream with it’s harmonica and balling bassline, and Bring The Light has a classic Blues riffs played on a piano with the always welcome gospel singers providing the odd bit of backing – all very nice. The cracks don’t really start showing until things slow down for the first time on the album’s ballad, Kill For A Dream. We can’t really fault Liam’s ear for a good melody or a decent rock song, but where he falls down is the lyrics. While remembering previous lyrically desolate Liam efforts like Little James (off of Standing on the Shoulders of Giants), we lucky folks get treated to new pearls of rhyming couplets like, “I’m here if you wanna call/Staring at the spot on the wall,” “A looking glass hard thrown at the wall/You don’t see me but I see it all,” and who can forget, “Well here’s my glass and here’s one for you/’Cause these dark glasses means something to do”. Oh man! Deep stuff.

So that pretty much dispels that Liam as musical-genius theory, especially with the backend of the album dotted with meandering efforts that don’t go anywhere like Wigwam and The Morning Song, and then there’s the irritating The Beat Goes On, which finds Liam in an introspective mood as he sings about the arduous life of being an International Rock Star. But, despite all that, you can pretty much forgive the lyrical lows of the album given by the fact that Different Gear is actually a generally good effort with some decent tunes on it – something for Noel to think about, lest he wants to be shown up by the band he left.

The Black Spiders have been making waves in the underground for the last couple of years, so their debut arrives to the jubilation of fans who have been eager for this LP to drop. Needless to say it was worth the wait!

Each track is a blast of machismo guitar power and energy which does great honour to the Rock Gods.. Not a song goes by without at least one uplifting vocal line, bluesy beer swilling guitar lick or addictive melody. There isn’t a great deal of originality found on Sons Of The North, but they stick to their guns, doing it classic rock style better than almost anyone else in the current rock crop.

Album opener Stay Down sets the tone of what’s yet to come. It’s a brutal all out air-raid assault with it’s unrelenting, uncompromising rock muscle played at breakneck speed. Easy Peasy showcase their poppier side with a female guest vocalist adding some flair to its mid-tempo melodies. Blood Of The Kings is about as varied as they come. During its 7 minute stay we get some pounding head bop friendly crunching riffs, dual guitar solo’s, dramatic halts, bold bass melodies, epic crescendo’s and even a short vocal skit aside to fade. This and St. Peter‘s slow groove heavy blues shuffle, with its simple but effective vocals, loud soft dynamic and a wicked wah-waaaahhhhed solo shows they are anything but one trick ponies.

The fact they still have their sense of humour intact sees a band loving what their doing and having fun with it too, as seen with lyrics such as “Eat Thunder! Shit Lightning!”  on the rousing album curtain call What Good’s A Rock Without A Roll all the while KISS Tried To Kill Me proclaims “It was Gene Not Paul” and “It Wasn’t Ace’s Fault”… apparently.

Through all their touring they have clearly refined these tune to the perfect hard hitting rockers they are today, displaying some excellent song craft and a gift for incessantly catchy hard rock. Every songs demand your attention and wills you to stand up and salute each and every one them (preferably wearing your favourite classic rock T-shirt, beer in hand, down the front at one of their live shows)!

The Black Spiders have arrived!

Sons of the North apes classic rock forebears like AC/DC and Black Sabbath like it’s going out of fashion… oh, I see. Luckily given the rumblings this band has been generating in the “underground” classic rock scene, Black Spiders show themselves to be fine exponents of the genre. There’s riffage galore throughout the album; really, you couldn’t get away from them if you wanted. Stay Down which starts the album at a ferocious pace sports a simply monstrous solo to finish.

A light-hearted approach on KISS Tried To Kill Me gains approval as it neatly side steps that age old problem for bands of this ilk taking themselves too seriously. Other songs of note include Easy Peasy, which feature guest female vocals for a, now sadly rare, rock duet. St Peter starts slowly, builds to a plodding pace before a bit of quiet finally bursts into a cool solo and riff mid way through, a good song. The curtain closer, What Good’s A Rock Without A Roll, shows the band do have some craft by cutting the guitars over the verses without making it less rocky (that was a reference to one of the lyrics, in case you missed it), only to increase the effectiveness of the guitars when they bring them back.

Some songs err on the forgettable side, like Just Like A Woman, Medusa’s Eyes, the Metallica-esque Si, el Diablo and… I forget. Whereas Blood Of The Kings‘ shortcoming is that it’s just plain too long amongst all the short blasts of rock the album offers, while not quite capturing the essence of a great Black Sabbath song. All though, despite their foibles, are flush with excellent solos so if that’s a key criteria for you, you’ll be more than happy having bought this album.