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.”
Esta historia es de la edición June 2023 de Record Collector.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición June 2023 de Record Collector.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
WINDOWS ON THE WORLD
At the peak of their powers in the early 70s, by 1975 there were signs that Led Zeppelin were burning out, and their legendary appetite for excess, not to mention stadium-straddling, mythically charged, epically inclined hard rock, might be waning.
HI-FIDELITY?
Running a record shop is a dream for many music aficionados. Steve Burniston investigates how to run a successful one
THE ENGINE ROOM
The unsung heroes who helped forge modern music
UNDER THE RADAR
Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention
45 SHEFFIELD 45s
Continuing our celebrations of RC's 45th birthday and following on from our look at the best 45s to come out of Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow, we focus on the urbanisation formerly known as Steel City: Sheffield. Close to the (Nether) Edge: Jeremy Allen
Finished Symphonies
In the late 80s, Shelleyan Orphan made rarefied, ravishing, precious (both meanings) baroque pop, all chamber quartet accompaniment and literary reference points, like an 18th century Cocteau Twins.
"BLACK BRITISH PEOPLE HAD SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT"
Breaking new ground for black music in Britain from his teenage years in Matumbi in the early 70s, Dennis Bovell went on to become one of reggae's most highly regarded producers, helping popularise lovers rock. He also played a pivotal role in post-punk's experimental incorporation of dub influences on records like The Slits' Cut and The Pop Group's Y. As new compilation, Sufferer Sounds, reaches back to his early days to compile some of his best early dub plates, Lois Wilson gets the full backstory from one of British music's most enduring forces.
FRENZY REUNITED
Swindon's finest musical export, XTC were also one of the most quietly influential British bands, setting a template for Britpop while pioneering a brand of left-field guitar pop – from herky-jerky invention to consummate craftsmanship – that has spawned many imitators.
Paperback Blighters - The books every record collector should read.
The books every record collector should read. Vinyl, you may have heard, has made a big comeback. In 2022, sales of vinyl albums surpassed compact discs (CDs) for the first time in more than three decades in terms of global revenue, racking up more than $1.2bn.
"Beware the Savage Lure/of 1984..." - David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods.
David Bowie is one of the most venerated musicians ever. But even he had his bad periods. For many, 1984 remains the nadir of his Phil Collins” phase; an artistic/sartonial/tonsorial disaster area. But was it really that awful? Forty years on, Matt Phillips explores Bowie's so-called annus horribilis.
