Liam Gallagher’s As You Were: Half-Answered Liam-Led Oasis Music
His soft side is the strength of this album.
The first thing that comes to my mind when Liam Gallagher stated that he’ll be doing solo is this question: what can he offer with his actual voice condition? In his Oasis tenure, he often comes up with a simple-structured song yet suitable with his vocal range at the time, which was getting worse from year to year. He’s no longer has a quality as he used to and he often forced it, resulting in damaging his vocal cord. Thank god he didn’t mind what others were saying and in 2016 he has signed with Warner Bros to record his solo album. Many people started to eagerly wait what Liam will offer since his brother also doing the same thing.
This album is the appropriate answer to that. In every song, Liam Gallagher still maintains his trademark: Beatlesque. He worked with three producers that helped him modernized and embarked variations to the song.
His first single, “Wall of Glass”, clearly stepped up Liam’s capability in writing songs. It starts with a harmonica filled with rhythm and lead guitar, rare things in the usual Liam’s song. Liam also sings high notes during the chorus, resemble a slight of his voice in “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory” era.
The most Beatlesque tracks in the album are “For What it’s Worth” and “Paper Town”. Both delivered as a ballad and have these memorable choruses which make them catchy. Liam’s hitting various notes while singing those two, he’s like challenging himself in singing songs like these. Turns out, he nailed it pretty good!
Don’t forget another Liam’s trademark: straight up rock and roll. Still rooted in the 60s, his songs like ‘Greedy Soul”, “Bold” and “Come Back to Me” heavily influenced by it. Those songs suitable for the festival opener, really wake the crowd up and make Liam’s snarling voice stand out. “Universal Gleam” sparks the atmosphere of an anthem, however, it’s like the simplest version of “Champagne Supernova” because of Liam’s short-breathed while singing, therefore the energy of the song doesn’t really imply.
“Ideally, you want to do it yourself. But I can’t write those fucking big songs. I’m limited. My verses are up there, but I just can’t do that next bit.”
- Liam Gallagher on songwriting.
Overall, Liam still can pull off a good rendition of his own music. He pictured his condition through his songs, many of them have honest lyrics about life and relationship. The bad news, this album hasn’t shown his best work yet. The good news? He’s still there, singing, like a fuckin’ Rock n’ Roll Star.
