Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Pretty Boy Review

After not doing anything particular for the past few years, Noel Gallagher, frustrated, pushes on with another new album. The issue of being in a mega-pop group that stormed the charts and cemented a legacy two decades ago is that it is very difficult to eclipse such a status. To go bigger than that is something very few can do without a few years spent in the wilderness. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and their latest track, Pretty Boy is a surprising turn for Gallagher and company. Guitar music that the genre has already moved past, but Gallagher is continually trying to catch up with it.

Vague lyrical placements see Gallagher struggle for placement in a genre that has moved on. His message is still clear and simple, but it is reliant almost entirely on the instrumentals that come through. Heavy guitar work can be found in the better alternatives of the genre, there is no longer any excuse for mediocrity in a genre that explodes with such great fascination. Sea Girls and the like are doing this much better and with less of a groan-inducing voice or simplistic drum machine sweeping it all together. Vague and uninspired renditions of making dreams come true and nothing much else. There is not just a loss of power behind the lyrics of Gallagher here, but a question mark over whether he had any in the first place.

A drum machine that sounds like the opening beat of Enola Gay and a relative lack of complexity throughout marks the floaty lyrics of Gallagher as just plain dull. His message is stronger than the vessel they are delivered in, but just how strong meaning can be without the core of its vocals. These are prominent vocals, and a tad overwhelming for the decent mixing going on behind the scenes, those builds and falls that make or break a track. What Gallagher experiences here is a fine lead single that will no doubt stir excitement, but what tone it sets and which direction he takes is both unknowable and completely similar to his previous efforts. That is not a bad thing for those that enjoy his music, but it marks another worrying, stony-faced album that fails to grow within the genre.

Shamefully so, in a way. Pretty Boy is by no means a bad track, and had it released a decade before this date it would likely be doing well as a single. Not because of the perseverance Gallagher would provide with his name but because that is where this track places itself. Nothing particularly new, refreshing or exciting. Something that Sam Fender, Sea Girls and those within the guitar rock sub-genre, whatever that is, had experimented with and moved on from before ever releasing their debut effort. There is a safe consistency with Gallagher’s music for those that need it, but those that need it will need to hear new music, the excitement of the genre that comes after Gallagher and his High Flying Birds, most of all. Johnny Marr is apparently present here, but feels totally absent.