- Record Label: Island
- Release Date: Nov 8, 2011
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Nov 28, 2011The fact that this debut hews closer to the Noel we know certainly shouldn't be a disappointment.
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Nov 22, 2011Wrapped in guitars, strings, brass and reverb like a psychedelic Union Jack, he's in full flashback mode.
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Nov 17, 2011His deftly executed--and surprisingly eclectic--debut features flourishes that Liam never would have allowed.
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Nov 11, 2011Birds isn't a commercial risk, nor will Oasis fans find it a challenge, but that doesn't take away from its smart craftsmanship.
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Nov 8, 2011In addition to being the most sonically adventurous collection of songs Gallagher has released to date, these are also his best since (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
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Nov 8, 2011Much of High Flying Birds is concerned with more understated charms.
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Nov 8, 2011Not as memorable as Oasis' best anthems in the '90s, or as nasally rock-ready as his brother's latest incarnation, Beady Eye, the album hovers within a melodic good-to-average middle ground.
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Nov 8, 2011While his brother Liam trundles on with the morose Beady Eye, Oasis' better half delivers a bracingly kinetic solo salvo.
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Nov 8, 2011It's a decent enough album with 10 rock-solid songs that come close to but never quite reach the elevation pitched by the album's expressive title.
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Nov 8, 2011Noel's High Flying Birds is tasteful, mannered craftsmanship.
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Nov 7, 2011Gallagher never turns these slight detours into genuine departures. By not veering far from the Oasis blueprint, he invites unflattering comparisons to his best work.
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Nov 4, 2011Beneath the shiny new ear candy, the album peddles the same sort of passable exercises in Gallagher's patented populist songcraft that have populated the last decade's worth of Oasis LPs, with the main difference being the boorish laddishness embodied by Liam is totally absent.
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Oct 27, 2011So, for now we're left with another Noel Gallagher album that continues in the same trend of most of Oasis' output, trying to be something greater than it is. But hey, at least it's better than Beady Eye.
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Oct 26, 2011These songs will do very nicely, thanks, as reassurance that Gallagher can still deliver evocative and memorable tunes.
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Oct 21, 2011High Flying Birds isn't a total knockout, but it should keep Liam sleeping with at least one Beady Eye open.
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Oct 18, 2011Forever a slave to rock history, Gallagher feels like he's biding his time for the third act reunion rather than breaking from the well-trod path.
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Oct 18, 2011Coming from a band that derives a certain amount of its notoriety from seeming jaded and indifferent, Gallagher's solo flight is actually stunningly pure and beautifully rendered.
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Oct 18, 2011Noel has crafted one of those rare gems in an LP where every track is a potential single.
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Oct 17, 2011An unprecedented futuristic hybrid of dubstep, speedcore and math-rock, with lyrics which charge towards unexplored lexicographical horizons.
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Oct 17, 2011It suits him well, and he knows it.
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Oct 17, 2011Noel's still got it. Only a fool would write him off.
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Oct 17, 2011Tick the boxes, add a few strings, loud bit here, quiet bit there--it presents as the musical equivalent of a catering buffet that while attractive, initially satisfying and never truly souring of the palate, ends up quickly becoming a homogenised sprawl that fails to tempt you back for second helpings.
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Oct 17, 2011Lyrically, there are interesting ruminations on the trappings of fame ('(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine') and his troubled mind ('Broken Arrow'), while the album is all the better for losing some of the bravado Noel hid behind while writing for Liam--but there are admittedly some clunkers.
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Oct 17, 2011High Flying Birds is the best collection of Gallagher tunes since his Morning Glory days.
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Oct 17, 2011For now, it'll do that it's a more enjoyable album than Oasis' latter-day catalogue.
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Oct 17, 2011There are certainly some nice tunes here though it's doubtful if Underground buskers will be swapping them for the likes of Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger in their Christmas run-up repertoire.
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Oct 17, 2011One can't help wondering whether this was really the album that Noel Gallagher set out to make when he contemplated a solo career, or just the one he settled for.
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Oct 17, 2011For now, then, Gallagher's High Flying Birds are merely coasting.
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MojoDec 22, 2011Here, for the first time in years, the primetime Gallagher swagger is back, in a more mature form. [Nov 2011, p.94]
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MagnetNov 21, 2011It's all very appealing and completely listenable, if sometimes overreliant on mid-tempo rhythms with occasional surges in passion and pacing. [#82, p.56]
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Q MagazineNov 8, 2011Formerly one of the finest melodicists of his generation, this assured debut secures his position as one of our finest artists. [Nov. 2011, p. 124]
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Under The RadarNov 2, 2011The problem is that the rest of High Flying Birds is not as successful as it is ambitious. [Oct 2011, p.99]
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UncutOct 18, 2011The cumulative effect of all this mid-tempo moodiness is that High Flying Birds feels awfully plodding. [Nov 2011, p.88]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 122 out of 146
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Mixed: 9 out of 146
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Negative: 15 out of 146
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Nov 8, 2011
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Nov 10, 2011
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Nov 9, 2011