Liam Gallagher - As You Were

The brothers Gallagher, whose post-Oasis-implosion career arcs serve as a potent reminder of the oft-cited axiom ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, have each tried their best in recent years to distance themselves (Noel with his High Flying Birds and Liam & Co. with Beady Eye) from their shared past.  And after nearly a decade apart, Liam has finally decided to step away from working within the context of the band and release his first ‘solo’ record As You Were.

So how does As You Were differ from any of the other Liam-fronted solo projects?  Well, where Beady Eye often felt like a drummed-up reaction to the ever-looming presence of Oasis’s legacy, As You Were is an eclectic affair that is notable for its complete lack of artifice; it is simply a collection of well-written songs; nothing more, nothing less.

And while working with a mega-producer might be an alarming choice for longtime fans, Greg Kurstin (the man behind seemingly just about everyone lately) has proven to be the perfect match for Gallagher, pulling a level of sincerity out of the singer that is downright disarming.

The album’s twelve tracks place Liam’s trademark voice front and center, revealing the singer’s capabilities in ways that few other releases have.  The record ebbs and flows from rambunctious (highlighted by the infectious lead-single “Wall Of Glass”) and playful (“You Better Run” and it’s cheeky ‘Helter Skelter’ namecheck) to understated (“Paper Crown”) and subdued (“When I’m In Need”) with an impressive cohesiveness.

Although the first half of As You Were is predictably tuneful, with songs like “Bold” and “For What It’s Worth” featuring huge choruses and (for lack of a better word) Oasis-esque vocal melodies, some of the album’s best moments can be found on its second half, where the driving “I Get By”, the haunting “China Town” and the psychedelic “Universal Gleam” are almost worth the price of admission by themselves.  While there’s nothing here as grandiose or overstated as say “Champagne Supernova”, the focus and brevity of As You Were plays as a strength.

While much of As You Were sounds exactly like what you would hope and expect to hear from Liam Gallagher, much more importantly, it sounds almost nothing like Oasis (for the most part), which is a feat in and of itself.  As You Were might actually represent another musical milestone for the singer as it is clearly the work of a re-vitalized artist. And while it used to be difficult to separate Gallagher the musician from Gallagher to headline-inducer, it’s clear that at this point in his life he is simply content to let the music do the talking.