Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Wandering Star Review

Returning to the work of the High Flying Birds amid the Oasis announcement is like a closing time pub trip. The after’s is already underway, the bar staff is already wiping down the bar, and another night is logged, temporarily, in the memory bank for those who saw the fights and thrills of the night. But Wandering Star, the track which later featured on Noel Gallagher’s Blue Moon Rising, has not made it into many memories. Even Gallagher seems disturbed by its lack of cultural impact. He said as much on the Pyramid Stage during his last performance at Glastonbury, though it is his fault for releasing works not as an album, but as a series of EPs. A novel concept. A nostalgia package for those who remember rushing out to buy extended plays. What could have been one project is instead fragmented and all the weaker for it.  

Not strictly a Christmas song, though when you have the chimes and bells heard at the start of festive films, the association is inevitable. Wandering Star manages to both break from the seasonal greeting and adapt to it, marking a warm occasion where Gallagher tells of borderline sincere moments. His sickly-sweet style of writing post-Oasis has been constant and, at times, is welcome. The occasional dip into those saccharine displays is fine enough, but Wandering Star takes them that step too far. Being caught from falling dreams, being the guiding light to an everyday home, these are the romanticisations of normal situations without the specifics necessary to bring new light or love to them. Gallagher has often suffered this problem. His heart is in the right place, but the indie-tinged style has affected his wordplay. He deals in dramatics, in generalities. His will they, won’t they style of songwriting is washed out here.  

Contradictory opening bars set the scene. That back-and-forth between isolation and embrace is a neat touch but it is dealt with such simplicity, it almost makes the sincerity feel forced. Yet for all its soppy occasion, it is likely the strongest song Gallagher has written in some time, certainly since his High Flying Birds debut. Gallagher was more interesting when prodding the psychedelic rock tones of Who Built the Moon?, but then that was rather off the mark too. Wandering Star is a song of triumph without ever having a moment of victory or hopes for the future within. A shame, too, as Gallagher’s vocal work is steady and plays well with the instrumental tone found within. Not exactly a boundary-pushing song from Gallagher, but then again, when is it ever? 

Unimpressive but solid playlist fodder. The sort of song that comes on in a pub and makes little to no waves of impact on the conversation at hand, the mood of the place, or the taste of your pint. A numb song, but a track which, at the very least, shows Gallagher can still grasp a sense of emotionally valuable tone. He struggled with that on Council Skies and at the very least, Wandering Star has a sense of love guiding those lyrics. They may be stagnant offerings, the usual switch Gallagher provides in his lyrics never a surprise, but still solid. Songs like this are for fans already well-versed with Gallagher, for those who want the same as before, and the same again soon after.