Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - 'If I Had A Gun'

Melancholic heartbreaker from Gallagher Sr.

Album Info

Release Date: September 5, 2011

Try as little brother might to turn the whole post-Oasis experience into a puffed-chest pantomime, the story on Gallagher Sr’s side seems to be all one of freedom and ease at long last. Rather than the bullish threat the title might suggest, Noel only wants to “shoot a hole into the sun and love would burn this city down for you”. There’s a relaxed relief that you can hear in his solo work so far. Rather than desperation to prove himself as a new man, Noel’s now got the time and space to work up songs that have been around for some time, such as this graceful beauty.

It first appeared in these pages back in April 2009 under the guise “Oasis – The New One”, recorded by a Taiwanese fan during soundcheck for a Taipei gig. “It finds Noel’s vocal at its most heartbreaking and vulnerable,” we noted. “That feeling? That’s your soul being dug out.” Of course, one fateful guitar lob meant that it was never going to make it into Oasis’ oeuvre, but we’re glad that it saw the light of day, its delicate charms beefed up into a thing of melancholic, chest-cramping gorgeousness. The next one’s disco, apparently – now that is cutting loose.

Duncan Gillespie

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