Liam Gallagher & John Squire 

Rock

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Review By: Matt Isaac

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When I first heard Oasis’ live broadcast of their knebworth 96 I did wonder what would happen if special guest John Squire, fresh from leaving the Stone Roses would ever would collaborate with either Liam or Noel Gallagher...

I did attend a Noel Gallagher concert in Manchester in 2018 and saw Reni in the crowd . After the much mooted Stone Roses reunion around the same time , John obviously had Liam in mind to sing these new songs he has just written. And they are gooduns. They all suit Liams voice perfectly.

While no one would expect a ‘definitely maybe 2’ or a twin companion to the stone roses timeless debut, there are plenty of throwbacks to remind us why we loved both back in the day .

Raise your hands is a call to arms and a great lead of singing echoing the psychedelic 60’s west coast/ Beatles that influenced the pair of them so ...Liam sounds rejuvenated and squire seems freer to peel off the bluesy solos more so than in the seahorses or the roses .

Talking of such influences , Mars to Liverpool features  Clapton cream esque white room ish solo from John.  Liam seems so expressive on this . His last two albums has seen him grow in stature vocally and the growth continues here ....
One day at a time is more in line with mid period oasis ( not a bad thing at all ) optimistic lyrics which appear to be theme Liam has progressed from his recent solo albums...

I’m a wheel echoes mannish boy which encorperates some stones influences vocally and plenty of soulful guitar work from squire.

Just another rainbow starts with a stone roses jangly guitar intro and Liam channels his Ian brown yet doesn’t appear derivative. This would fit nicely on the debut stone roses album nicely ....a lovely zeppelin esque mid section also ...

Love you forever rhythmically and guitar wise echoes Hendrix . Liam injects his own personality and transforms this into a song that wouldn’t appear out of place on ‘be here now’.

Make it up as you go along echoes an oasis b side with strong Beatles/ Lennon nonsense lyrics along with the ‘thank you for thoughts and prayers and @@@@ you too’ it’s reminds me off ‘married with children’ and ‘shaker maker ‘

You’re not the only one continues the theme of togetherness and comfort and the day tripper esque ‘I’m so bored’ brings out the punk in Liam with one his strongest vocals in while.

However it’s the closer ‘mother nature’s son’ that points the way to sure fire volume 2’. This includes some beautiful slide work from squire. It does evoke ‘champagne supernova ‘ and is the most beautiful song on here .... it proves Liam can perform a gorgeous accoustic ballad without help from his older brother, more so than ‘one of us’ from his ‘why me why not ‘ album .

As speculation continues as to whether than stone roses will record a third album or whether a certain other Mancunian band will ever reunite, this will not only suffice between Liam solo albums,  this sets high expectations for a solid follow up not to mention a proper uk tour.

A mighty fine debut and a new musical path for two local icons ..