Beady Eye
Be

The shadow of being "Oasis minus Noel Gallagher" will follow them as long as they exist, that is inevitable.

The desire to show the world that they could live even without the contribution of the big brother resulted in the creation of an album like "Different Gear, Still Speeding," partly surprising (especially thanks to an author like Andy Bell, who has still been part of a highly respected band like Ride and who ultimately gave Oasis themselves two gems like "Turn Up The Sun" and "Keep The Dream Alive"), partly perhaps too frantic and naive, even if boasting a respectable hit like "The Roller."

Now Beady Eye, led by Liam Gallagher, come to a crucial crossroad: the second album. A toy waiting for a (perhaps, and I say perhaps, phone call) mega-reunion, or a project with solid and promising roots? It is not yet clear, but BE is a hell of an album. Much more focused than the debut, more inspired, more cohesive yet at the same time more "colorful." Perhaps thanks to a producer like Dave Sitek (frontman of the never too praised TV On The Radio), who is intelligent enough to take the lead in some instances, like the beautiful ballad "Soul Love," written by Liam and born as an acoustic sketch at Songbird, then transformed by Sitek's skillful hands into a foggy acoustic rock picture with Gallagher delivering a low and haunting vocal performance. The same applies to the opening (and first promotional track) "Flick Of The Finger" (born from the pen of Gem Archer and Liam Gallagher during sessions aborted with Death In Vegas in 2004), with a splendid brass section dominating and good work from Chris Sharrock on drums, in addition to a spoken sample by Kavyan Novak at the end. The first single "Second Bite Of The Apple" follows more or less the same line, with brass and drums dominating the scene and a nice sound explosion at the end.

As Liam would say, there is no lack of "bangers" in the style of the debut album, both written by the always excellent Andy Bell: "Face The Crowd" is the most aggressive and will surely ignite the band's imminent live shows, "I'm Just Saying" instead shamelessly pays tribute to the freshest and most irreverent Oasis of the Morning Glory era (reminiscences of "Hello," "The Swamp Song," and "Round Are Way"). Liam, on the other hand, as usual, prefers to draw intimate and personal acoustic sketches: having spoken of "Soul Love," the much-talked-about "Don't Brother Me" is worth mentioning, a sort of olive branch in music intended for his brother, which starts as a new "Guess God Thinks I'm Abel" and then leaves the field open to Sitek who lets loose at the end with skewed and cryptic sounds, bringing the piece to over seven minutes in length.

Elsewhere, the frontman's voice is left free to express itself now accompanied by a single acoustic guitar ("Ballroom Figured"), now by light and never intrusive arrangements, only vaguely dirtied by the excellent but polite noise created by Sitek ("Soon Come Tomorrow"). There's no shortage of a great britpop piece like "Iz Rite," practically a "(Probably) All In The Mind" (Oasis) part two, and "Shine A Light" owing both to "Screamedelica" by Primal Scream and to certain more frenetic things written by (oops!) Noel Gallagher ("Part Of The Queue, "AKA... Broken Arrow").

There's also time for an epic closure like "Start Anew," which begins acoustically and ends recalling the splendid Coldplay of the underappreciated "X&Y." In short, the "younger" Gallagher seems to be slowly finding a satisfying and all his own path. The future, however, remains a story still to be written and discovered.

Together or apart, the premises are more than positive.

Best track: "I'm Just Saying"