it was in my review, or if you like thought piece, of Liam Gallagher's As You Were that i mentioned in passing, look you see, that i had made no decision on whether or not to invest in what would be Noel Gallagher's third solo album. or solo of sorts, since he appears to release stuff under a band name of "High Flying Birds".
the reason for no declaration of intent to purchase was the fact that i had not heard anything from it. well, i have now, thanks to a somewhat traditional Monday release of the first single off of the record, a tune called Holy Mountain.
no, i have no idea if it was quite deliberately released on the Monday after the Friday of Liam's solo album release, and to be honest i don't really care any more. should they wish to keep bad mouthing each other then that's nice; it is not like rock stars haven't been doing that sort of thing for close on 60 years now.
anyway, moving on. in trying to stick to my word - despite the fact that no one out there would really take me to task on the matter - i elected to purchase the single so as i may hear it. purchase yes, single "maybe". once again i am in the realm of buying a "digital download". there is, as it happens, a physical release of the song - some limited edition 12", i believe, featuring this song, an instrumental version and the live track that is a "bonus feature" of the forthcoming third album.
sometimes i really do wonder about the Google and its reputation. for all the claims and allegations about being "the best" search engine, the most powerful thing on the web and having so much data, they do make it tricky for you, or in this case me, to give them coins of money. simply searching "Noel Gallagher" or "Noel Gallagher Holy Mountain" did not bring up the record to buy. a search for just "Holy Mountain", however, gave me the screen on which i was able to hand over 99p in return for a legitimate, legal download of this tune.
how is the song? "different". i confess when i first played the downloaded track i said to myself there is some colossal mistake here, for that is not Noel Gallagher i hear. off onto the net and that You Tube thing i went, then. there i discovered that the vocals i heard on my single were indeed the very ones attributed to Noel Gallagher. he sounds rather different than i've heard before - sort of a screechy shouty distorted type of thing rather than that heavier tone associated with his style.
to say, suggest, imply or otherwise accuse Noel Gallagher of "borrowing" from other musicians is hardly a new phenomenon. on Holy Mountain such is here in abundance. most on the net have already pointed out that in essence the song is She Bangs or whatever it was called off of Ricky Martin, only with Noel shouting over it and some moog like organ (played by Paul Weller out of Style Council, i believe?) on the go. in honesty that was not the immediate bit of "borrowing" what occurred to me. no. what i did, however, instantly hear, was a "borrow" from David Bowie. there's a bit in Holy Mountain where the lyrics are along the lines of "get out of the doldrums, baby". it's a lift of Bowie's Diamond Dogs, the line being "get out of the garden, baby".
other than that, for some reason (which presumably makes sense to Noel) the sound of the song is a chaotic, tribute like homage to the finer moments of Glam Rock. some have suggested it lifts the sound of T Rex, but to my ears - and i appreciate it is not fashionable to say such - overall it comes across as the sound that The Glitter Band used to produce, just behind their singer whose name escapes me for the moment.
i actually do not know, right here right now, if i actually like the song or not. mostly the answer to that might well be yes. at heart it is a rather infectious bit of psychedelic glam rock - quite catchy and very encouraging in inviting you to shout along with it. but the borrowing, the Noel going "hey do you remember this bit off of this song" across the three or so minutes of it is quite distracting.
has it persuaded me to commit to a day of release adventure? no. with a name like Who Built The Moon i had assumed the record, as the title evokes Keith Moon and The Who, would be solid rock. now i have no idea what to expect of it. Noel does mislead with singles, of course. before his solo debut album the single The Death Of You And Me suggested he had discovered a whole load of country and western songs to borrow off.
anyway, let me go and play it a couple more times and consider this matter further.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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