Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Throughout the 15-year existence of Oasis, it was widely assumed that Noel Gallagher was the group’s mastermind—he wrote the songs, shaped the band’s look and sound, and determined the proper level of collective onstage inebriation. But judging from his self-titled debut as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, the closest Oasis came to replicating the music in Gallagher’s head was on stately B-sides. On his own, Gallagher fancies himself a gentleman tunesmith, goosing Burt Bacharach-style pop bounciness with strings, choirs, and a little (but only a little) classic-rock bombast. “If I Had A Gun…” starts with plaintive guitar strumming before exploding into one of Gallagher’s patented lighter-waving anthems, but much of High Flying Birds is concerned with more understated charms, like the sloppy, good-time horn section and boozy vibe of “The Death Of You And Me” and the heartfelt balladry of “Everybody’s On The Run.”

Updated 03/23/2012