Above And Beyond!

Big brother triumphs by reminding everyone he knows how to write giant tunes.

- John Earls

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Council Skies

Sour Mash JDNC 63 (CD/2CD, LP/3LP/LP+7”, Cassette)

Since Noel Gallagher’s third album as a solo concern, he’s released an LP’s worth of new music across three EPs and a Best Of compilation, 2021’s Back The Way We Came. Nonetheless, Council Skies is Gallagher’s first full album in six years: a surprising statistic for someone with such a usually reliable release schedule.

Having successfully furthered his psychedelic side with producer David Holmes on those EPs and 2017’s Who Built The Moon, Gallagher has kept elements of that adventurousness on his return. Mostly, as implied by its title – taken from a book by illustrator Pete McKee – album four is Gallagher in reflective mood, offset by a musical grandeur.

In place of Holmes, Gallagher’s co-producer is Paul Stacey, a regular associate since engineering Oasis’ Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants in 2000. Trying To Find A World That’s Been And Gone and Dead To The World are classic Gallagher ballads from the Half A World Away playbook, yet the latter jangles along with a subtly intricate playing and chord structures possibly unheard from Gallagher before. For all its ruminative atmosphere, there’s a playfulness to the lyrics as Gallagher informs his muse: “I’m going to write you a song/It won’t take long/You can change all the words and still get them wrong.”