Sing with me: "The First Noel, I've actually liked...". Everybody's more preferred brother in rock music's Kardashian family, the saner one puts together a strong album that sounds progressive and doesn't dip too much into other people's cliches. That said, you can certainly hear the influences, but they aren't overwhelming and show quite a bit of imagination on Gallagher's part. Holy Mountain is a T.Rex stomper, with a sly reference to Bowie's Diamond Dogs thrown in for good measure but it sure does rock, with a great chorus. Keep On Reaching is his take on Motown, with both Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground and Marvin's Can I Get A Witness supplying lines in the lyrics, and the horns borrowed from the Snakepit.
It's much more than borrowing though. The melodies aren't stolen, and the production and rhythm are thoroughly modern. If anything it's homage, and a little help in coming up with song ideas, nothing more nefarious. Once the songs are in flight, they are big, bold and catchy, and a lot more fired up than the last few Oasis albums, and the first couple of High Flying Birds albums. New single It's A Beautiful World is too much U2 for my liking, so don't judge the album on that basis, it's much more fun than that cut, and I think that is the key, this is a good time record.
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