Another review, a bit critical (but that's what critics do, so I put my opinion about this at the end), here they're giving 3.5 stars out of 5. Other reviews give 4, which is very good. The most hilarious one is that on contacmusic, giving 1 point out of 10, not really a serious website as they want to be.
Beady Eye, Oasis without Noel, have decided to continue under the name Beady Eye following Noel’s departure in August 2009. Why not continue with the name Oasis and guarantee record sales and ticket sales? Two reasons, firstly Noel is not like previous members Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan who left the band in 1999, Noel leaving Oasis is like John Lennon leaving the Beatles or Johnny Marr leaving The Smiths, the second reason? Liam wanting to prove he didn’t need his big brother to make a successful band work, and why not? In Liam they have the greatest frontman of his generation, Andy Bell formerly of Ride and Gem who, for my money, was the best guitarist in Oasis.
Throughout the last two albums by Oasis only “Lyla”, “The Shock of The Lightning” and “Dig Out Your Soul” album tracks “The Turning” and “Bag It Up” had that classic Oasis mixture of Liam singing on Noel’s songs as well as “Let There Be Love” where they featured on joint lead vocals, other than that all songs written by Noel had Noel on vocals, and all songs written by the members who have gone on to form Beady Eye have had Liam on vocals. Because of this and the fact I wasn’t expecting the album to feature songs fitting in with the sound of the last Oasis album “Dig Out Your Soul” which I thought was very influenced by Noel overall, I was expecting an album similar to “Don’t Believe The Truth” in quality.
The first single, “Bring the Light” was released as a free download back in November to a mixed reaction, to say the least; this was the marmite song of 2010. A few days prior to this download being made available Beady Eye made their first mistake. They put a sample of “the new single” on YouTube and their website. I couldn’t stop listening to this nineteen second sample and come 10th November 2010 I downloaded as soon as I woke up. I put it on and sat their opened mouthed in shock and disappointment, where was this guitar solo from the video? That was my main disappointment, that I was looking forward to a guitar lead anthem and this piano based Jerry lee Lewis rip off with lyrics such as “What you thinking, I’m taking you drinking” reminiscent of Liam’s first songwriting attempt back in 2000 with “Little James” with the now infamous rhyming of “Plasticine and Trampoline” and “Toys and Noise”. Nearly four months later and knowing what to expect it is still sounds out of place but is a listenable song.
A few weeks later the album title, “Different Gear, Still Speeding” and the album cover were released. Things weren’t looking good – so far I wasn’t a fan of the band name, album cover, album title or, most importantly, the first single.
Album opener, “Four Letter Word” is a rock anthem that would have fitted easily on any of Oasis’ albums. This is an example of Andy stepping up to the plate following Noel’s departure in terms of songwriting. Potentially a live favourite and if Beady Eye are to be a success they are going to have to put on as good a show as Oasis did throughout their career.
“Millionaire” and first official single “The Roller” follow and are examples of the more light hearted songs placed throughout the album that don’t have the same Rock edge that Oasis became known for and heard on “Four Letter Word”. We have heard songs like this off these three songwriters before in the past such as “Guess God Thinks I’m Abel” and “Keep The Dream Alive” from 2005’s “Don’t Believe The Truth” by Liam and Gem respectively but they are a lot more frequent throughout this album as was to be expected. Sombre moments like this are dotted throughout the album in the form of “For Anyone”, “Kill For A Dream” and “The Beat Goes On” and because of this the album becomes very stop start. “For Anyone” and “Kill for a Dream” follow the up-tempo aforementioned “Bring The Light” and then immediately followed by another Rock anthem in the same style as “Four Letter Word” and at times it sounds as if you are listening to the album on shuffle as opposed to in a set order.
As soon as the track listing was announced many fan’s hearts sank when they saw a track with the title “Beatles And Stones”, almost as much as when they heard it. This is the low point of the album and would have much better suited as a b-side.
The other big highlight of this album, alongside “Four Letter Word” comes in the form of the near 7 minute Liam penned “Wigwam”, which is as good as, if not better than anything he has previously written. Even though it is nearly 7 minutes the last 4 are taken up by instrumental pieces and chanting featuring some of the highest vocals I have ever heard by Liam.
The album is closed by “The Morning Son”, a song that starts off acoustically and builds until it brings the album to a close by an instrumental crescendo. The first thing I noticed was Liam’s reverberated vocals and again some average at best lyrics, “He’s in my soul, He’s even in my rock and roll” being the main culprit but overall it’s a good way to close an album, reminiscent in its ending to “Soldier On” or “Champagne Supernova”.
The music on “Different Gear, Still Speeding” doesn’t sound like Oasis music, but it will always sound like Oasis as the voice of Oasis was always Liam. It is on par with any of the post 2000 Oasis albums (apart from the “Don’t Believe The Truth”) and is much better than their last effort, and in my opinion their worst “Dig Out Your Soul”. My biggest gripe with the album, along with how it doesn’t flow very well, is that at times it sounds as if Liam, Andy and Gem are trying too hard to recreate a sound from the 60s that is long dead. Having said that overall it is a solid debut and about as good as could have been expected, it’s not going to change the world like “Definitely Maybe”, but what album since 1994 has?
But that is positive, no bands around sound like Beady Eye...
And I don't think it was a mistake that of Sons of the Stage sample & Bring the Light as first song. They want to surprise people with something different. And in fact now many people like that song too. Me too, I totally changed my mind about it from the first listen, now I even love it. And they did it on purpose, they don't give a fuck, you know what I mean, they're sure to be successful whatever they do. Somehow they want to show that a first impression is wrong. They're able to make haters change their minds, but of course haters won't admit it.
The first single, “Bring the Light” was released as a free download back in November to a mixed reaction, to say the least; this was the marmite song of 2010. A few days prior to this download being made available Beady Eye made their first mistake. They put a sample of “the new single” on YouTube and their website. I couldn’t stop listening to this nineteen second sample and come 10th November 2010 I downloaded as soon as I woke up. I put it on and sat their opened mouthed in shock and disappointment, where was this guitar solo from the video? That was my main disappointment, that I was looking forward to a guitar lead anthem and this piano based Jerry lee Lewis rip off with lyrics such as “What you thinking, I’m taking you drinking” reminiscent of Liam’s first songwriting attempt back in 2000 with “Little James” with the now infamous rhyming of “Plasticine and Trampoline” and “Toys and Noise”. Nearly four months later and knowing what to expect it is still sounds out of place but is a listenable song.
A few weeks later the album title, “Different Gear, Still Speeding” and the album cover were released. Things weren’t looking good – so far I wasn’t a fan of the band name, album cover, album title or, most importantly, the first single.
Album opener, “Four Letter Word” is a rock anthem that would have fitted easily on any of Oasis’ albums. This is an example of Andy stepping up to the plate following Noel’s departure in terms of songwriting. Potentially a live favourite and if Beady Eye are to be a success they are going to have to put on as good a show as Oasis did throughout their career.
“Millionaire” and first official single “The Roller” follow and are examples of the more light hearted songs placed throughout the album that don’t have the same Rock edge that Oasis became known for and heard on “Four Letter Word”. We have heard songs like this off these three songwriters before in the past such as “Guess God Thinks I’m Abel” and “Keep The Dream Alive” from 2005’s “Don’t Believe The Truth” by Liam and Gem respectively but they are a lot more frequent throughout this album as was to be expected. Sombre moments like this are dotted throughout the album in the form of “For Anyone”, “Kill For A Dream” and “The Beat Goes On” and because of this the album becomes very stop start. “For Anyone” and “Kill for a Dream” follow the up-tempo aforementioned “Bring The Light” and then immediately followed by another Rock anthem in the same style as “Four Letter Word” and at times it sounds as if you are listening to the album on shuffle as opposed to in a set order.
As soon as the track listing was announced many fan’s hearts sank when they saw a track with the title “Beatles And Stones”, almost as much as when they heard it. This is the low point of the album and would have much better suited as a b-side.
The other big highlight of this album, alongside “Four Letter Word” comes in the form of the near 7 minute Liam penned “Wigwam”, which is as good as, if not better than anything he has previously written. Even though it is nearly 7 minutes the last 4 are taken up by instrumental pieces and chanting featuring some of the highest vocals I have ever heard by Liam.
The album is closed by “The Morning Son”, a song that starts off acoustically and builds until it brings the album to a close by an instrumental crescendo. The first thing I noticed was Liam’s reverberated vocals and again some average at best lyrics, “He’s in my soul, He’s even in my rock and roll” being the main culprit but overall it’s a good way to close an album, reminiscent in its ending to “Soldier On” or “Champagne Supernova”.
The music on “Different Gear, Still Speeding” doesn’t sound like Oasis music, but it will always sound like Oasis as the voice of Oasis was always Liam. It is on par with any of the post 2000 Oasis albums (apart from the “Don’t Believe The Truth”) and is much better than their last effort, and in my opinion their worst “Dig Out Your Soul”. My biggest gripe with the album, along with how it doesn’t flow very well, is that at times it sounds as if Liam, Andy and Gem are trying too hard to recreate a sound from the 60s that is long dead. Having said that overall it is a solid debut and about as good as could have been expected, it’s not going to change the world like “Definitely Maybe”, but what album since 1994 has?
But that is positive, no bands around sound like Beady Eye...
And I don't think it was a mistake that of Sons of the Stage sample & Bring the Light as first song. They want to surprise people with something different. And in fact now many people like that song too. Me too, I totally changed my mind about it from the first listen, now I even love it. And they did it on purpose, they don't give a fuck, you know what I mean, they're sure to be successful whatever they do. Somehow they want to show that a first impression is wrong. They're able to make haters change their minds, but of course haters won't admit it.
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