Noel Gallagher

“Dead to the World” (Single, 2023)

Those who know me, those who truly know, know my "relationship" with the Gallagher brothers. It began in the first half of the 90's and will continue until the day I die; it's like a wedding: there are good days and bad days. Moments of ecstatic joy, and flashes of tremendous sadness and betrayal. Curious. This brother was never my favorite. And that sounded a lot like a boy band fan. "Which of the 5 is your favorite?" For fuck’s sake, people. The 90s were a special decade. Many will say that it was one of the worst ever for music, I say it was one of the best, having as rival the 60s and 70s. The emergence of new currents, of experimentation, of risk... priceless. The 90s were also the explosion of the Manchester scene that had been concocting something since those 4 guys got together and created Joy Division. But... fast forward to 2009 and the end of Oasis. After a series of years, the Chief moves on to solo work, which is that aforementioned marriage: a glorious single, and a rather strange thing. The boy is capable of anything and everything, let there be no doubt about it.

June 2, 2023. This is the day set for Noel Gallagher's new album, "Council Skies"; "Pretty Boy" and "Dead to the World" are the first songs known. If one — "Pretty Boy" — is very much in line with the musician's last phase (more danceable, essentially), "Dead to the World" reflects the works he created during his Oasis years. A ballad, that is not a ballad, but a Noel Gallagher song. "Pretty Boy" is modern, it sounds like something I didn't imagine Noel doing, but there we have it. But it is not weak, it is not vulgar; it's a Noel Gallagher fusion of sounds. "Dead to the World" is an anthem, it's brilliant, it's superb... delicate, gentle, sweet, mesmerizing. It leads us to question the authenticity of 99% of the music we listen to today. "I am dead to the World, don't know where I've been", these lyrical details, so Noel Gallagher. Those first 2 albums showed a genius at work and are held in immense esteem here at home. 2017's "Who Built the Moon" left me kind of confused, honestly. In this album we see the musician risking a little more, so it is not strange what he presents in "Pretty Boy". Anyway... excellent. Remember that in the meantime this gentleman has not lost his connection with the musical line he created with Oasis in the figure of the single "We're on Our Way Down" (2021), so this "Dead to the World" is drawn from the bowels of what Oasis were.

I read somewhere that some fans preferred to hear Liam's voice on this particular song; I'll have to disagree. Even though I'm Team Liam, and Liam's voice is The Voice of Oasis, this one is Noel's. A "Masterplan," for example, is Noel's, and live it chills in a way I've rarely felt. And "Back to the World" is that; a song to be sung by Noel because that voice fits into sounds less Rock n' Roll and more Folk - is this Folk? I doubt LOL - but you understand... Liam is rougher and more visceral; Noel is sweeter and more delicate. Let us wait for what is coming, nonetheless this one sounds a lot more interesting than the previous one.