After just one blog I’ve managed to delegate the work by roping in a like-minded acquaintance to do some writing. Dom is going to be No Frills Reviews resident Liam Gallagher fanboy. For those that don’t already know me, I should introduce myself as Kev to avoid any confusion. Check out Dom’s thoughts on three of his 2022 favourites below.
Liam Gallagher – More Power
As you’d expect from any Liam Gallagher solo track, his influences are well and truly worn on his sleeve. The track opens with a choir of children singing, “The cut it never really heals, just enough to stop the bleed” – my first thoughts are “is this a reworking of the Rolling Stones – You can’t always get what you want”.
The choir fades out and in comes the unmistakable voice of Liam (or its it John Lennon?) over the top of an acoustic guitar. This is co-written with Liam’s now long-time collaborator Andrew Wyatt, but I feel Liam must have written the majority of the lyrics. Sometimes I do find that Liam’s lyrics are a bit weak but not enough to put me off. I love good, well written lyrics but it’s not the be all and end all, a great tune can rescue poor lyrics.
More Power feels like it has come from Liam’s heart, with cries of, “Father Father, I can see so many things now that your gone”, later followed by, “Mother, mother, I’ll admit that I was angry for too long”. The Gallaghers of course brought up by their mother after they left their abusive father when they were children.
Liam doesn’t pretend he’s a songwriter, he openly admits that he struggles to take the foundations of a song onto the next level, personally I couldn’t give a shit if he writes them or not, something that Noel Gallagher likes to hammer him for, but I’m guessing that’s just down to their long standing feud. I’ve never heard Noel call out Elvis for not writing his own songs or Elton John for using Bernie Taupin’s lyrics, Elton who also admits he wouldn’t know where to begin with lyrics. Some people just don’t write songs and that’s fine – after Wilko Johnson (the main songwriter) left Dr. Feelgood, it was suggested that lead singer Lee Brilleaux should have a go, “I sing em, I don’t write em”, was his response. Which I’m guessing is what Liam would rather do, but at least he’s having a go and I, for one, would rather have Liam around than not.
Liam is an artist who knows his audience and pretty much gives them what they want, this is a smooth ballad with Liam’s snarly voice telling us, “you might not get the girl you want but you’ll get the girl you need”, not sure that would go down well if you said that to your girlfriend, “you’re not the girl I wanted but you’re the girl I needed”. Both a dig and a compliment perhaps.
I personally can’t get enough of Liam, it may not be the greatest music you’re ever going to hear, and you can’t go in expecting him to push boundaries and take us to places we’ve never been. He takes us to a comfortable place where we know what we’re getting, we’ve heard it all before but it still sounds good. His music is accessible to everyone whether you’re heavily into music or not, my two year old daughter regularly requests that I play Liam, and when she says Liam she means this song in particular, More Power.
For me this is one of Liam’s best efforts yet, no matter how much of it he did or didn’t write.
Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder – Hooray Hooray
Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal join forces to make a full album for the first time since the sixties when they were in Rising Sons, whose only album recorded in 1965 wasn’t released until 1992. Cooder played on Taj Mahal’s self- titled debut album in 1967, but as far as I’m aware they haven’t recorded anything together until now, coming together for this tribute album to the songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (two even older bluesmen).
On this track, Hooray Hooray, Cooder plays mandolin and sings lead vocals while Mahal blasts out the harmonica, Cooder’s son joins in on drums and bass.
The song gets underway with a little intro of mandolin and harmonica before the bass and drums kick in sending your feet tapping, I instantly thought of Americana legend John Hiatt, in particular his track Lincoln Town, at a slightly slower pace.
It has that Americana feel to it, a warm groove to get you moving, and despite being absolute pros who could shred your face off with a riff, it manages to have a very raw sound, there’s nothing complex in this track just two legends of their game going for it.
Their voices, cracked over time, add to that rawness and embellish it to make a joyful sound. I get the feeling when listening to it that they’re enjoying it as much as any listener would.
It’s an absolute love of music for them and you can hear it through the speakers.
Arctic Monkeys – Body Paint
I’ve never been massively into Arctic Monkeys, sort of liked them from afar but I’ve never been invested. The last album Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino, I just could not get into, and I tried. But I do like that they do their own thing and don’t pander to what the mainstream fans want. Whether that’s a conscious effort from Alex Turner to try and reinvent themselves or whether it’s just what comes out naturally I don’t know, maybe a bit of both.
Body Paint was the second single released on this years much anticipated album, The Car. The track is led by piano and a sparse drum beat, Turner as usual is very clever lyrically, opening with the lines, “for a master of deception and subterfuge, you’ve made yourself quite the bed to lie in, do your time travelling through the tanning booths so you don’t let the sun catch you crying”. If you listen carefully you can still hear that Sheffield accent creeping through every now and then so he hasn’t gone full Harry Styles yet.
The track gradually builds with a string accompaniment, dropping out just before a piece reminiscent of the Beatles takes us into the bridge, which for me hits all the right notes as Turner reaches for those high notes that he must know are almost out of reach for him – but if I wanted to hear a pitch perfect singer I’d go to a musical.
Once this track gets into its stride I think it’s up there with anything Arctic Monkeys have done, melodically it can stand up as if Lennon and Macca wrote it themselves.
There’s still a sense of the old school Arctic Monkeys in there as we hit the refrain, “there’s still a trace of body paint”, the power chords kick in and a cool guitar riff leads us out.
Although Body Paint is four minutes and 50 seconds long for some reason it doesn’t feel like it – like most people nowadays – my attention span is short, so to keep me interested it has to be good.
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