Beady Eye, Different Gear, Still Standing
Official Release date: February 28, 2011
The verdict: Yeah, no, just kidding about Definitely Maybe — but Liam Gallagher will impress people here. Considering this is the first time baby brother has led the charge on a full-length (he’s written a handful of Oasis songs, but most likely none of your favorite Oasis songs), some expected his new band Beady Eye’s debut to be an unmitigated disaster. Instead, we get an instantly likable batch of mid-tempo meat-and-potatoes rock songs that sensibly and unapologetically plow down Gallagher’s previously established musical track. Stock rock lyrics abound, and some stuff is so on the nose (on the song “Beatles and Stones,” Liam sings that he’ll “stand the test of time / like Beatles and Stones”), but that just means those previously established as Gallagher brother non-believers will continue to not be convinced. For anyone hoping Liam would pull out a pretty good latter-day Oasis album — well, here you go. As Liam might say, if we had actually asked him for a statement and he had then responded in a timely fashion: “It’s, like, rock-and-roll music, d’you know what I mean?”