Music > Album Reviews
Liam Gallagher - C'mon You Know
25/05/22
Third ‘solo’ album from R Kid sees the same path trodden but with a spring in its step.
It is almost 30 years since a bunch of lads from Burnage, Manchester lit a fire that shone brighter than any other (Rock N Roll) star. Oasis, in their heyday, were like the air we breathe, they were vital.
Roll into 2022 and it would be fair to say opinions are split on the youngest of the Gallagher brothers. Whilst this record won’t change that it will keep a flame lit for the Parka Monkeys to carry.
C’mon You Know opens rather unexpectedly, there’s a choir of children essentially bringing the spirit of The Stones ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ to ‘More Power’ “The cut, it never really heals / Just enough to stop the bleed,” the kids croon in falsetto over acoustic guitar. It is a stop in your tracks opener, rather like Rock N Roll Star was back in 1994.
Diamond In The Dark has a riff that sounds like it was lifted from a 70′s TV programme (something elder Gallagher brother Noel does frequently) It is a song that could easily fit on the 2nd and ultimately last Beady Eye album ‘BE’ a record that, in my opinion, flew under the radar and has a lot to offer if given a chance.
Everything's Electric was the first single, a song written by the Foo Fighter himself Dave Grohl and Andrew Wyatt (more of Andrew shortly) Grohl sent the song to Gallagher who leant his sneering vocal to the track. It is the closet thing you’ll get to a traditional Oasis vibe, it rocks, it is brash, it is VERY Liam. Smart move, Dave.
World In Need is a nod to The Beatles (you knew there had to be a mention of the fab four, right?) it isn’t as trippy as it could have been, for me it is a little polished, in fact the live version recently performed on Later....With Jools Holland is a far superior version.
Liam is quite open about the fact that he’s predominantly ‘just a singer’ his team of writers, Americans Andrew Wyatt and Greg Kurstin plus Simon Aldred (better known as Cherry Ghost) have now worked with Gallagher on three records and you can hear a major improvement in the bulk of these new songs.
Better Days has a Tomorrow Never Knows/ Chemical Bros loop that will get the masses moving. Although Liam has declared this record as nothing to do with the effects of lockdown and Covid, this song practically reeks of hope and the idea of there being better days and better ways of living, believe me LG cries, and believe him I do.
Moscow Rules holds its place firmly as the ‘ballad’ on the album as Gallagher lays bare his delicate side through melancholy vocalisations and soft piano trickles before diving into the electro-heavy, Happy Mondays-esque stylings of I’m Free. Featuring sultry spoken word and rife with beat drops, guitar riffs rip through atop roaring drums, I’m Free sits as one of the most driving cuts on the record.
C’mon You Know is Gallagher's best album thus far. Yes it has the usual influential suspects it also nods to The Specials, Pink Floyd and Spiritualized. I can guarantee you Noel did not see this coming and with LG about to play to over half a million fans this summer, the aforementioned Parka Monkeys will be having the summer of their lives. Mad Fer It.
8/10