Review: 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds'

Review: 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds': Aidin Vaziri | The breakup of Oasis might be the best thing to happen to the Gallagher brothers. It allowed Liam to show off his limited but endearing songwriting chops in full with the group Beady Eye this year. Here it restores the sense of urgency that elder brother Noel's most recent albums with his former outfit were so desperately lacking. The clumsily titled "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds" might sound familiar in attitude and concept - there's a decent "Wonderwall" rewrite called "If I Had a Gun," plus a handful of actual Oasis leftovers - but the major difference is in the enthusiasm that propels soaring tunes such as "Everybody's on the Run" and the chugging "The Death of You and Me." Gallagher hasn't sounded so alive in years. Better yet, it gives him an excuse to try out things that surely would have caused major studio fistfights in the past, such as the delightfully lightweight "AKA ... What a Life!," a song that wouldn't sound entirely out of place on Coldplay's latest.