The Pop Corporation

There’s a corner of society that may not have voted for Brexit, but they certainly enjoy the lumpenness of things and cheer on a thundering hoof at the football, and cheekily say that it’s ‘a proper Brexit tackle that‘, and of course, there’s a musical equivalent too, that wants to listen to things that sound exactly like the other things they like.

That sounds like a criticism, but Status Quo cut a career out of sounding like Status Quo, and they have some all-time bangers in the can, right? When things look resolutely backwards, it can sometimes be a whole load of fun, so if you’re a young band that sounds kinda like a Britpop band, and then end up getting a support slot with one of the Britpop bands and end up playing to larger audiences and sell a bunch of t-shirts and LPs, then really all things being fair, who can really quibble at it?

King of this is of course, Liam Gallagher. While Noel goes off and does things that Oasis wouldn’t dare while still vaguely staying within the confines of Classic Rock, Liam isn’t nearly as arsed. Liam knows what he likes and makes music for people who also know exactly what they like too. There’s little need for experimentation – it’s good time rock ‘n’ roll with loud guitars and loads of attitude.

John Squire is a slightly different prospect, mind you. He’s a bit more of a sensitive soul, but has hung around with enough scallies with bucketfuls of swagger, that he’s found himself being something of a reclusive, tight-lipped bard for lads who like to get the bags in and always have their Stone Island labels on show.

The two have teamed-up for an album which is simply the pair of their names, and Squire has once again been thoughtful and preferring to let his guitar do the talking, while Liam has basically kicked into promo mode and said the whole thing shits on ‘Revolver’. In it’s own way, it’s charmingly familiar, and no doubt, there’ll be Oasis fans who haven’t bought any records since Liam’s solo LPs, writing updates on Facebook and signing them off with ‘AS YOU WERE x‘, and little Chloe will be smiling as her dad acts large with his pals and thinking about getting him another pair of Gazelles for Xmas as he tearily wipes his eyes and says ‘they’re dead smart them Chlo‘ and they’ll dutifully don the bucket hats when they go to the Gallagher Squire show, with all the other divorcees and Madre lads.

And what’s probably the most charming about this whole thing is that, when it boils down to it, you’ve got two legends teaming up for an album, who have ostensibly managed to avoid daft political views, getting cancelled for being sex pests, and all that jazz. Given Gallagher’s promiscuity, that’s quite something and his scandals have been good old fashioned spuds and butter scandals where he’s got someone pregnant, but still paid his way, or told someone to piss off.

But what’s this album like? Well, it’s not career endingly awful, but neither is it a work of art. See, even for people who don’t really like Oasis or The Stone Roses, when both of those bands hit their stride, they were unavoidably fantastic. When Squire’s pen gave Ian Brown the chance to sing the utterly marvellous “sometimes I fantasise when the streets are cold and lonely, and the cars they burn below me“, which is undeniably terrific. Liam meanwhile, was never more convincing as he yelled “in my mind my dreams are real, now you’re concerned about the way I feel – tonight, I’m a rock ‘n’ roll star” in one of the greatest moments of feeling like a million quid on a Friday night out with your mates – it’s not literally about being a singer in a band, it was always that feeling of feeling like you were amounting to something and that feeling of invincibility, powered by pints and midtable coke in your best new shirt.

And that’s why this pairing makes so much sense. Liam needs someone to write him anthems, and he’ll fuckin’ sing ’em. However, their glorious youth is behind them now, so it’d be a bit daft if they carried on like that. Somewhere, deep in both of their consciousness, they would have worried about making an album that’s the musical equivalent of some balding lad clinging onto his Wellend haircut.

That’s where their shared love of British psychedelia comes in, with Liam ever the Lennon devotee and Squire busting out big bluesy, Creamish riffs, the likes of what we saw on ‘The Second Coming’, minus the dance music influences.

On tracks like ‘I’m So Bored’, we hear Liam spitting about being bored with bosses, boots, war, peace, strikes, listening to people yadda yadda yadda, and it’s basically a tribute to Big Punk Song You Know, with a dash of ’60s Mod Pop You Know, and well, Britpop obviously. And it’s got all the hallmarks of sass and grit, but without the young fire to make it really start to shake. However, if you wish you could hear Liam Gallagher singing something that’s not from the first two Oasis LPs, have at it.

Elsewhere, the psychedelic touches which are provided by Squire’s detail oriented eye, are fine enough. They’re not going to blow your brains out if you’re mega well-versed in underground psychedelic records from the ’60s – which incidentally, you assume Squire is (he’s surely got a belter of a record collection, right?) – but then, this isn’t meant to be an experimental LP – it’s an honest-to-goodness, boots-on-the-ground rock LP. In ‘Just Another Rainbow’, it’s basically Oasis via The Seahorses, and the end section is enough to flip a wig or two if you’ve had the right stimulants or whatever, but there’s the knotty segment where Liam is literally just singing the colours of the rainbow and you’d be forgiven for having a laugh when he does.

In ‘Mars To Liverpool’, people who love spotting a Beatles reference will have a nice time when Liam sings “the sun is up, the skies are blue”, and if you needed reminding that John Squire knows more chords than Noel does, the segment where you hear “here comes that feeling – here it comes again”, fans of this pair might nod and go ‘oooh, nice‘.

And in defence of such roundheaded references that are levelled against these two, reviewers will inevitably look toward Jimi Hendrix, Led Zep etc when talking about Squire’s guitar playing, but honestly, we’re getting more of the freakbeat gymnastics you’d hear on, say, a record from The Creation or The Fleur De Lys (again, we reckon John’s record collection is decent). While this is a pretty straight-ahead LP, Squire allows himself to freewheel somewhat, and for fans of guitar players really playing their guitars a lot, they’ll sagely nod and Squire’s done his reputation zero damage here.

‘You’re Not The Only One’ and ‘I’m A Wheel’ is classic Brit Blues – think Peter Green, Humble Pie, Faces et al. Again, not bad reference points at all and no-one was suggesting that this album was going to change the face of rock music, because in Liam’s DNA is something that wants to preserve, not break new ground. Musically conservative, sure, but then, so are The Stones and we’re not demanding they get the wub-wubs out and go down a dubstep direction or have a guest verse from Aitch or something. And you get the sense that this wasn’t a load of Stone Roses cast-offs, as Squire clearly had Gallagher in mind when he got him singing “I know you’re happy in your suburban trance, you should have fucked me when you had the chance.”

For people outside of Manchester, it’ll sound very much like a Manchester LP, even if Manchester as a city is very much in the thrall of techno and No Wave indie on the ground level. That’s nice for Squire, no doubt, who must have been nervous of sticking his head out with a high profile gobshite like Liam. There’s really no need for nervousness though, because this whole album is a solid album that will be lapped up by the people it’s aimed at. They’re playing some theatre shows to back it up, rather than enormo-domes and outdoor affairs, and that’ll suit Squire too. Liam won’t care – he’s swaggering around whatever space he finds himself in like he owns the fuckin’ thing regardless.

And if you don’t like Oasis, then you’re not going to be able to get over the hurdle of Liam’s voice. It’s still about as subtle as someone throwing a spent johnny down the back of your neck, and start to finish, it’s got all the cornerstones you think it has. It’s very much Bloke Rock, and Squire’s pastoral sensitivity that was allowed to flourish in The Stone Roses doesn’t dovetail with Liam’s outlook. The closest you’ll get is maybe ‘One Day At A Time’, musically speaking – but it’s no folk-rock jangler once it kicks on.

“Everyone has heard it before,” Gallagher told The Times. It’s the Beatles, the Stones, the Faces, the Pistols… nothing has changed.” And that’s the kicker isn’t it. One man’s stasis is another man’s keeping the flame alive, right? One person’s forgettable is another’s underrated, right? It’s almost pointless giving something like this a kicking, because too often, generic rock music that does exactly what it says on the tin is a rollicking good time. Sometimes, it’s pretty pedestrian and you wonder why any bothered finishing the project off.

Before hitting play on an album like this, the listener will have almost certainly already made their mind up, and that’s probably largely in part to Liam’s insistence on being tribal like music is football, or something like that. Listeners will be charmed or irritated before hearing a single note of this, leaving the whole reviewing thing almost pointless.

Yet here we are. As you were, indeed. x