Why Me? Why Not - Liam Gallagher: Review
is a British singer and songwriter who was formerly co-frontman of legendary britpop band Oasis alongside his brother Noel. After Oasis broke up in 2009 Noel went on to form Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Liam went on to form Beady Eye. While High Flying Birds continue to release music to this day Beady Eye broke up in 2014 after two records and Liam released his solo debut As You Were in 2017 and is now following it up with this album.
Review By Lavender:
There is no denying that I absolutely love Oasis. Their output in the 90's is legendary specifically their masterpiece 1995 record Whats The Story Morning Glory. I have even enjoyed most of the material Noel has dropped under his High Flying Birds act, but because of how disappointing Beady Eye was and how long it had been since I had really enjoyed music from Liam, I wasn't thrilled for his solo debut As You Were. Thankfully the record had some excellent singles and surpassed my expectations as Liam delivered a snarky, contemporary and very catchy modern rock record. Unfortunately I felt some of the same feelings of lacking anticipation going into this record after a couple of the singles and I have to report that while it isn't quite as good as As You Were, this record once again was better than I anticipated.
While I enjoyed most of the singles leading up to the record one of them really, really dragged my expectations down and brought up some bad memories of a young Oasis fan being let down by Beady Eye records. One Of Us is one of the most bland and lifeless songs I've heard all year that can technically be considered rock and its complete lack of life aside from some tolerable percussion had me worried for the quality control of the record. While much of this record is pretty solid my biggest complaint has to be that when it goes low, it goes dreadfully low. Halo is a weird and ridiculously corny rock tune that sounds like something out of the 80's but completely devoid of any of its style or poise and I want absolutely nothing to do with it. Be Still is a contemporary but generic piece of pop rock that I can do without especially once it gets so painstakingly sentimental. The only other sound I couldn't stand was Meadow which is unbearably sentimental and horribly overproduced to the point that I can't even sit through the whole thing in one go.
Thankfully the rest of this record is not only good, but good in a number of impressive ways that kept me coming back to so many of these tracks. Shockwave was a killer single and serves as a bouncy and catchy opener with awesome sung vocals and chanting background vocals coming together for a fantastic alt-rock tune. Once was yet another single that I loved, the track is a sweet ballad with another great vocal performance from Liam and a building orchestral instrumental that throws it back to some of the most swelling and dramatic Oasis moments. My favorite of the singles however, and my favorite song on the entire album was The River. The track absolutely fucking jams from top to bottom with great blistering guitars great dramatic vocals and some killer songwriting for a fantastic and complete listen.
Now That I've Found You is a pretty decent track that seems U2 inspired and has some great vocalizing with a classic rock guitar riff, that track may wear out its welcome a tad by the end but it was always a song I enjoyed returning to. The title track Why Me? Why Not is a weird track coming from such an established industry veteran as far as it attitude but ultimately. As far as the song itself goes I like it quite a bit and the hook in particular grew on me a lot. Alright Now stands out a lot in the tracklist as a 70's throwback with some hefty piano and jammy guitar riffing that is a little bit overblown but in a bearable way that I enjoy as a change of pace. Gone is one of the best slow songs on the record as the closer and it kind of reminds me of some of the songs from the new Raconteurs record earlier this year and it has good performances all around that make up for a little bit of dry songwriting in the tracks progression.
Why Me? Why Not has some refreshing stylistic changes of pace for Liam Gallagher that help keep the album a fresh listen that pulls from both contemporary and classic sounds. The records major issue is that when it misses it misses really hard and drops a handful of the most annoying and unbearable mainstream rock songs you'll hear all year, and there are a lot of annoying mainstream rock songs in 2019. If this proves anything it's that when he is operating at his peak Liam is still an excellent songwriter and performer and the only thing I can ask going forward is more consistency. 6.5/10
For more 90's rock artists making a comeback check out my review of Pixies Beneath The Eyrie here
