Liam Gallagher and John Squire – Just Another Rainbow Review

You may live in a cold, mould-infused flat which is frigid no matter the temperature, but at least you didn’t wait up until midnight to hear a Liam Gallagher single. Britpop Hall of Famer and Beady Eye failure Gallagher is back and this time pairs with nostalgia pop and Stone Roses guitarist John Squire as the pair mount their first single together, an effort which puts the world to rights. As empty a statement as ever before, the idea of putting anything in its place with Just Another Rainbow is lost entirely by the platitudes and “biblical” showmanship of a nasally frontman and his walking mod haircut guitarist who reminds him of past glories. But this piece from the pair whose shine is still as bright as ever before is fine enough. Jangling, echoed and a slice of The Stone Roses feat. Gallagher. This is all it is. 

Minimal variety to the vocal efforts Gallagher provides here, the same writhing voice which always features in his work. Even Squire, whose guitar work here is nothing short of wonderful, feels neutered by the former Oasis frontman. Another staggered classic from a Gallagher member, where the lyrics are nonsensical and plain all in one. Are you their windmill? Do you still wish to slowly walk faster than cannonballs? Hop on to Just Another Rainbow, then. Squire is the salvation of this five-minute snoozefest, intermittently popping up to riff along and play a secluded guitar solo. It sounds good enough though the pair suffer the Queen dilemma of having an instrumental piece which has little, if anything, to do with the flow of this music.  

Gallagher could have made this track on his own, and Squire ultimately feels quite absent. Nothing psychedelic or wild about it as first teased, just straightforward and old-hat guitar music which pales in comparison to modern head-ups from Sam Fender and Wolf Alice. Gallagher is stuck playing with the stale mud of the past and a lengthy guitar closer from Squire, where nothing is moved nor changed because of how thick the lyrics were, is all you get from this one. Those identifiable, chiming flourishes from Squire are still there just the heart was beaten out of it long ago. Gallagher makes some considered effort to relight the fire but gets nowhere close to the Oasis-adjacent stylings of this track. It fails to strike a new image or mood for either Britpop legend. 

At a time when the likes of Blur, who just wrapped another successful era together, and Pulp, who are set for global headline slots, are hitting it at an unrivalled level, it is a shame to hear Gallagher and Squire left adrift and trying to plot their way back on course. Familial spats and an understandable desire to avoid Ian Brown leave them rudderless but it was the pair themselves who threw their oars into the ocean and tried paddling their way to the distant shores with Just Another Rainbow. Nothing much to love about this one, primarily because it is just another track for the nostalgia heads. An inessential piece which brings to life nothing but a distant pit in the stomach which remembers Beady Eye. Collaborate away, then, it makes no difference to the wider genre.