BE. Beady Eye

You can listen to 'Flick of the finger' here.

To be or not to be, that seems to be the question for Liam Gallagher. If BE does not become a success, than sitting, sipping a drink on my terrace is an option, Gallagher appears to have said. Everyone who has read John O'Hara's seminal novel 'From the terrace', knows that sitting on the terrace is not everyone's voluntary choice. As far as I'm concerned there's no need to retire, BE is a great and diverse album that Beady Eye can be proud of.

The "strange" thing is of course that if Oasis was to convene tomorrow and tour millions of people would be trying to get a ticket for a show, while Beady Eye hopefully gets the Paradiso filled. Beady Eye is not Oasis and never will be. Neither is it 1994 all over again. What Beady Eye does succeed in is presenting itself in a broad and divers way with a keen eye for arrangements and musicality. The band proves that it does not need Noel Gallagher to make music. The combination of Liam, Andy Bell and Gem Archer works on its own. Chris Sharrock drums and Jeff Wootton is on bass, although he's been replaced for the tour by former Kasabian guitarist Jay Mehler.

Debut album 'Different gear, still speeding' was a bit bland to my ears, perhaps made just to fast. BE is all but. A lot is going on in the songs. Psychedelia, not completely strange to Oasis, is the best word to describe the wobbly things going on the back ground. As the 60s are the dominant factor in most of the songs. Beatlesque without great harmonising or The Hollies with a dark shroud thrown over. As Liam's always singing with a sneer and a snarl and on a bad day is whining, the quality of the songs determine what way they go. On BE it's mostly good. Like 'I'm just saying' has this poppy sprite and a positive, bubbly guitar solo that make it sparkle. Opener 'Flick of the finger' surprises with horns kicking in, filling everything and a Arnold Schwarzenegger (sound-a-like) cameo with some sort of a vague political message spoken word.

A lot of the songs are based on the acoustic guitar that at first listen sounded very repetitious. At closer listen there are these keyboard things going on in the background that make a song like 'Don't brother me' very interesting. 'Come on, give peace a chance', Liam's singing. A message to a beloved brother? Very sparse, but exciting. Bringing to mind all sorts of things Beatles, without being able to put my finger on anything specific. Yes, the outro does go on for a while, but in this case it's alright. Tribal drumming drives 'Shine a light', a song that sticks out not just for that reason. The cascading singing of the chorus aids there too.

What I can imagine is that if someone expects Beady Eye to rock out 'Rock and roll star' style (let's be honest here, if Oasis had only released the opening song of its first album, they would have left behind a statement of colossal proportions), that someone is bound to be disappointed. BE is mostly in mid-tempo with the surprises put in the details. My advise here is put on a good headset, turn the volume up mildly and immerse yourself in all these fun little things going on. The power of BE is the arranging skills that build out most songs into something memorable.

Taking BE all in, there's nothing to be ashamed of nor is there reason to despair. Beady Eye does not need Oasis to have a career of its own. It only needs Oasis if it wants to make millions of pounds fast. Artistically the band is totally its own and has made a more interesting album that the three albums that followed 'Morning glory'. Enjoy the terrace in your spare time Mr. Gallagher, enjoy a drink or two too if you like, but please continue to make some more music like this in the rest of your time.

Wo.