Top Ten Albums of 2011 - #04
Beady Eye's Different Gear, Still Speeding
Editor's Note: This is the 7th in a quasi-weekly series of reviews marking my favorite ten albums of 2011. New reviews go up every weekend through the end of the year.
If there was an award category here in the Top Ten something like "Album That Gave Me The Most Relief After Fearing It Would Suck," DGSS would have won it. The first single, "Bring The Light," is a good track, but it's pretty standard Liam fare - short on imaginative lyrics and reliant on three chords or fewer. I think the idea that Noel was the only good songwriter in Oasis is blatantly false. All four guys have songwriting talent. Noel just happens to be the most versatile. After this first single, I was afraid the Beady Eye album would be 11 repetitive tracks. ("Ain't Got Nothin'" anyone?)
So, after a good deal of brash build-up by Liam, DGSS hit early in 2011 to a lot of surprise. Those in the "Noel is GOD!1!" camp were surprised that the album was pretty damn fun. Gem and Andy's songs give the album enough variety that you can forgive Liam's more simplistic numbers. It does feel just a little long at nearly 52 minutes, so apparently my forgiveness isn't limitless. Left up to me, I might have relegated "The Beat Goes On" and "Standing On The Edge Of The Noise" to b-sides or a bonus disc. Beats the heck out of the current trend of using a "making of" documentary on DVD as bonus material. Seven b-sides have come out of these sessions, several of which I haven't acquired yet. The list, as far as I know, is:
"Sons of the Stage" (cover)
"Man of Misery"
"World Outside My Room"
"Two of a Kind"
"In the Bubble With a Bullet"
"Blue Moon" (cover)
"Across the Universe" (cover)
Technically the album sounds much better than the last couple of Oasis albums. None of Sardy's crap here - this is easily the 2nd best album of the year in terms of production quality.
Album highlights: Neither "Wind Up Dream" nor "Bring The Light" would have been given the time of day by Noel back in the day, yet here they're standout tracks. "World Outside My Room" is a b-side so good that it's hard to understand why it didn't make the album.
If there was an award category here in the Top Ten something like "Album That Gave Me The Most Relief After Fearing It Would Suck," DGSS would have won it. The first single, "Bring The Light," is a good track, but it's pretty standard Liam fare - short on imaginative lyrics and reliant on three chords or fewer. I think the idea that Noel was the only good songwriter in Oasis is blatantly false. All four guys have songwriting talent. Noel just happens to be the most versatile. After this first single, I was afraid the Beady Eye album would be 11 repetitive tracks. ("Ain't Got Nothin'" anyone?)
So, after a good deal of brash build-up by Liam, DGSS hit early in 2011 to a lot of surprise. Those in the "Noel is GOD!1!" camp were surprised that the album was pretty damn fun. Gem and Andy's songs give the album enough variety that you can forgive Liam's more simplistic numbers. It does feel just a little long at nearly 52 minutes, so apparently my forgiveness isn't limitless. Left up to me, I might have relegated "The Beat Goes On" and "Standing On The Edge Of The Noise" to b-sides or a bonus disc. Beats the heck out of the current trend of using a "making of" documentary on DVD as bonus material. Seven b-sides have come out of these sessions, several of which I haven't acquired yet. The list, as far as I know, is:
"Sons of the Stage" (cover)
"Man of Misery"
"World Outside My Room"
"Two of a Kind"
"In the Bubble With a Bullet"
"Blue Moon" (cover)
"Across the Universe" (cover)
Technically the album sounds much better than the last couple of Oasis albums. None of Sardy's crap here - this is easily the 2nd best album of the year in terms of production quality.
Album highlights: Neither "Wind Up Dream" nor "Bring The Light" would have been given the time of day by Noel back in the day, yet here they're standout tracks. "World Outside My Room" is a b-side so good that it's hard to understand why it didn't make the album.
Comments