06.10.17

I don’t think that anyone really deserves harsher criticism for having once been successful. Least of all Liam Gallagher, who was arguably thrown into fame’s deep end by his brother’s zeitgeisty songwriting ability, and – let’s face it – simply behaved as many people would if they did that much coke. Liam’s first solo LP (let’s forget Beady Eye ever happened) is a mixed bag, but maybe that’s to be expected from this avowed non-songwriter, and it’s certainly no worse than any of Noel’s solo tripe.

Wall of Glass is a plodding and overproduced opener – don’t listen to it. Chinatown sounds gratingly familiar due to the fact that it nabs its melody from Champagne Supernova; the extremely vague lyrics meanwhile offer little aside from their presumably unintentional paraphrasing of Robert De Niro in Meet the Parents. People should really stop rhyming “down” with “Chinatown”.

Luckily for Our Kid, there are a few tracks here which are serviceable: Greedy Soul is all harmonica, handclaps and gruff bar-room stomping, whereas Paper Crown is a well-constructed T-Rexish ballad that allows Liam’s vocals the prominence they deserve. While As You Were is all a bit Primal-Scream-do-the-Stones and forgotten-British-Invasion-psych-toffs-do-the-Beatles, it’s just about fine in a sort of XFM way.

Jon Clark