Chasing Yesterday

by Noel Gallagher, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Overview

Opening with a minor chord strummed on an acoustic guitar somewhere off in the distance, Noel Gallagher's second solo album, Chasing Yesterday, echoes Oasis' second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? -- a conscious move from a rocker who's never minded trading in memories of the past. He may be evoking his Brit-pop heyday -- "Lock All the Doors" surges with the cadences of "Morning Glory" even as it interpolates David Essex's "Rock On" -- but it amounts to no more than a wink because Gallagher knows he's two decades older and perhaps a little wiser as well. Certainly, Chasing Yesterday is the work of a musician very comfortable with his craft. Like the first album from High Flying Birds -- a largely anonymous group of pros who make no attempt to steal the spotlight from their leader -- it moves deliberately, never rushing and rarely rocking, preferring to find pleasure in majesty instead of hedonism. Where 2011's HFB kept things a shade too calm -- its reserve almost seemed like a rebuke to the messy id of Gallagher's brother -- Chasing Yesterday occasionally threatens to actually rock, delivering that signature wall of guitars on the aforementioned "Lock All the Doors," mustering up a bit of old-fashioned, cowbell-driven glam boogie on "The Mexican," and quickening the tempo on "You Know We Can't Go Back," a piece of incandescent pop that plays as a resigned companion to "Step Out." Better still, the self-styled epics -- which include the first single "In the Heat of the Moment" and closing "Ballad of the Mighty I," which features grace notes from a guesting Johnny Marr -- pulsate with quiet color, as does "Riverman," a signature piece of stately late-period Beatles pop that would've been drained to grey on HFB. Here, "Riverman" breathes and sighs, taking a moment to slide into a saxophone-accentuated guitar solo straight out of a pre-punk 1976, and this masterful flair is a testament to the control and focus Gallagher displays on Chasing Yesterday. He's not racing after the past, nor is he afraid to seem floridly fussy: he's reveling in his ascendency to the position of one of rock's wise old men. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	03/03/2015
Label:	Sour Mash
UPC:	5052945018027

Tracks

1. Riverman
2. In the Heat of the Moment
3. The Girl With X-Ray Eyes
4. Lock All the Doors
5. The Dying of the Light
6. The Right Stuff
7. While the Song Remains the Same
8. The Mexican
9. You Know We Can't Go Back
10. Ballad of the Mighty I

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds   Primary Artist
Noel Gallagher   Primary Artist,Piano,Vocals,Keyboards,Mellotron,Percussion,Guitar (Bass),Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Vocals (Background)
Victoria Akintola   Vocals (Background)
Ladonna Harley Peters   Vocals (Background)
Gaz Cobain   Vocals (Background)
Mikey Rowe   Keyboards
Paul Stacey   Keyboards,Mellotron,Guitar (Bass),Guitar (Electric)
Jim Hunt   Saxophone,Clarinet (Bass)
Beccy Byrne   Vocals (Background)
Johnny Marr   Guitar (Electric)
Jeremy Stacey   Drums
Joy Rose   Vocals (Background)
The Wired Strings   Strings
Vula Malinga   Vocals (Background)

Technical Credits

Matthew Cooper   Layout Design
Paul Stacey   Engineer,Group Member
Craig Silvey   Mixing
Greg Calbi   Mastering
Jeremy Stacey   Group Member
Noel Gallagher   Design,Composer,Producer,Group Member,Art Conception
The Amorphous Androgynous   Producer
Matt Howe   String Engineer
Rosie Danvers   String Arrangements
Toydrum   Remixing
Lawrence Watson   Photography
Mikey Rowe   Group Member
Jen Stacey   Photography