and so chance afford me the opportunity to write of the new (or if you like second, look you see) Liam Gallagher solo album, Why Me? Why Not. whereas i was indeed able to go and purchase it, kind of twice, indeed, on the day of release, it was only the day after when i got to give it a spin. not a worry, as such, or why not, i guess there is something fan like nice about only hearing it on the birthday of the artist responsible.
is it, for those who are in a rush and yet are inexplicably happy to wait around a couple of weeks for an opinion, any good? well, yes. to tell the truth, as i write this play one of the album draws to a close. at no point have i hit the pause button and gone off for a cigarette. further, on a number of instances i have stopped to just listen to the music, man.
by this point i would imagine the sales and chart performance are well known, possibly via me doing a post on the subject. it would, you may expect, take some doing to equal the "unheard of in this streaming free for all era" sales of around 100,000 for the first (debut) solo album, As You Were, but it can be done.
so yes, then. as you can see very clearly indeed above, thanks to the glory of Commodore 64 mode, my purchasing decision on the day was to get the deluxe CD of the album, and the rather splendid picture disc vinyl. well, i say "splendid", but more on that in a bit i guess, just for the sake of clarity. costs? the deluxe CD was 1p south of £13, which is £3 more than the standard edition so effectively £1 per extra track. in a marketing masterstroke the vinyl picture disc was priced at 1p south of £20, meaning the psychological effect of "it's only £19.99" appearing to make it seem cheap worked very, very well indeed.
no, i felt no need to get just the regular CD, or the more traditional, regular vinyl. in respect of the latter, do be warned, all you people recently new to vinyl. these picture discs do look attractive, shiny and collectible, which they are, but that is it. for as long as they have existed the sound, the playback and what have you off of picture discs has always been vastly inferior to "proper" vinyl. should your purchase be to actually play the record, then go with regular vinyl.
where to begin? at the start, i guess. which provided something of a worry. perhaps this is not relevant so much any more, what with the singles chart totes destroyed and made meaningless, but still. my mate Shaun believes that if the first track on any album happens to be the first single that was released, then it will be a rubbish album. one of the most frequently cited instances of this is U2's much anticipated Pop record, but for many it could also be said that Be Here Now by Oasis fell into the same trap.
actually, as i recall the sequence of "tracks" being "dropped", rather than singles being released as such (although actual singles exist, the first three tunes on Why Me? Why Not are the first three releases. not a bad idea, i suppose. by hitting the audience with three songs they are going to be familiar with at the start i guess you could say you are getting them "in the zone" to appreciate what shall follow.
those three songs, then, would be Shockwave, One Of Us and Once. at least i think the latter was a "dropped track" prior to the album, or maybe i just heard it on the radio at some point.
you can't really discuss Liam without discussing his (frequently) interesting life in the public eye, just as you can't really talk about any music off of someone without getting an at least general idea of the motivations. but that said, of course all music should work without any prior knowledge.
with some prior knowledge, it is just about all but impossible not to hear Shockwave as (perhaps yet another) unleashing on, or airing of the grievances at Liam's brother, Noel. if so, then it would appear that Liam is quite cross with Noel still, actually even possibly mildly rather upset with him. those who for some reason hark or long for an Oasis reunion (they were brilliant, but please go listen to Dig Out Your Soul again to become aware that their day had faded) will be somewhat dismayed by this tune.
paradoxically, or conversely, or whatever the posh word is, One Of Us is Liam singing in a most decided way about someone he misses. unusually he has been elusive in interviews and what have you on this one, but lines such as "you said we'd live forever", Liam mentioning it was about "family" and the promotional video apparently featuring three kids playing Liam and his siblings, kind of suggest that as quite cross as he may well be, he still misses him. or, maybe, much like the often melancholic Once, it's someone else he is missing.
and, just as soon as i wrote that, i accidentally saw an interview with Liam on whatever show it is Jonathan (W)Ross now stumbles through. he (Liam not the host) did say that the songs were "more to do with family in general". further, when quizzed on whether or not the song was an appeal to Noel to put Oasis back together, he eloquently pointed out that the lyric "put the band back together, you w@nker" did not feature in any song.
oh, yeah, i did buy the one sided, rather expensive (i think it just about cost the same as the standard CD version of Why Me? Why Not) 7" single of Shockwave. because, why not. actually i meant to do a post on that, and the Noel Gallagher picture disc i bought around the same time (Black Star Dancing), but just didn't get around to it.
so, there's an image of the "etched" flip side (b-side, i guess) of the Shockwave single. having the lyrics etched in is a nice touch, but an actual, proper b-side would not exactly have been distressing for the fee paid. and no, i did not purchase any of the other singles.
any particular highlights across the remainder of the record? well, there are no duds, no real downsides, nothing below average. all just solid, decent rock, really. so far, from what i can recall of the top of my head, the list of complete rubbish songs Liam has released post-Oasis comes to a total of precisely one, the distracting Standing At The Edge Of The Noise (or whatever) on the first Beady Eye record.
one track i was keen to hear was Halo. that would be because that lad who was buying the same variations as me on day of release took the time to point it out on the record to me, claiming it to be worthy of the title of being one of the best things ever to exist. so great to know that such passion still exists for the vibes, man.
whilst yes, indeed, Halo is a good song, my definition, or "benchmark", for something being called one of the greatest things ever is, generally, a little bit higher than Liam singing some new words over what is unmistakably the music of The Rolling Stones' Let's Spend The Night Together. on a similar note, one of the extra tracks on the deluxe edition - i think Glimmer - would appear to borrow from that Valerie song off of Amy Winehouse.
at the risk of sounding like an apologist or defender, maybe what someone said is true, perhaps all truly great rock and roll songs ever to exist now exist. it is possible that all there is left to do with a finite number of possible chord changes, rifts, grooves and vibes is to reassemble them, using an infinite number of potential lyrics to make that which sounds familiar feel close enough to new. in fairness, with its heavy handed sampling and poaching, rap, hip hop and similar are built on this, and it all seems to be a splendid success.
by the way, it turns out this picture disc version of the album is, or was, or at least started off as, something of an HMV exlusive. well, hey ho, happy days that i went and got it, then, i guess.
so, is Why Me? Why Not in contention for my much coveted "album of the year" title, for which it would have to beat out Ian Brown, Morrissey, The S.L.P. and, quite improbably and unexpectedly, two records featuring Roger Daltrey? his words on a recent radio appearance, admittedly in the face of much fawning over him, were "i haven't cured cancer or owt, it's just a record, man".
and a very good record it is, too. whereas, say, The S.L.P. (Serge out of Kasabian) had a good dozen or so plays and probably won't get played again, i think this album, like Ian Brown's Ripples, shall be close to the stereo for a good while yet. so yes, in conclusion, if for some reason you have not got this album yet, indeed get it. because, if nothing else, why not.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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