Track Of The Day: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

It's always a pleasure when one of my all-time musical heroes returns with new music. Especially when it's THIS good. Former Oasis legend Noel Gallagher played one of the biggest parts in soundtracking my youth in the 90s, and continues to astound me with his sheer brilliance. His last album from 2011 was his first solo record, and was his best set of tunes since Oasis hit their peak in the mid 90s. Today he announced the release of his upcoming second full-length effort, which will be called 'Chasing Yesterday', a title that perhaps refers to the fact that musically, nothing will ever be as big as Oasis again. 'In The Heat Of The Moment' is the first single from the album, and pairs a hard-hitting groove with the sort of surging singalong chorus that Kasabian would kill for. And of course, it comes packed with instantly addictive Gallagher hooks. Those backing vocals also sound a lot like Blur, which is somewhat ironic. "The first single was the last track to be recorded. It's called 'In The Heat Of The Moment'. Is it great? Of course it is. What does it mean, it doesn't mean anything."

'Chasing Yesterday' is released on March 2 next year, and was produced by Noel himself: “I didn’t like it to be honest. I’d taken it to my producer, Dave Sardy, who has worked with me for the last 10 years and for whatever reasons he couldn’t do it… I enjoyed the freedom with it but I didn’t enjoy managing the sessions. The end product is great but it was a pain in the arse,” he said. Noel described the album's sound as “very eclectic... You could take a pair of tracks and play them together and think, ‘fucking hell, he’s gone insane, what’s he done there’ but then you could take another pair of tracks and think ‘well it sounds like a rock ‘n’ roll album’” said Gallagher. “I don’t think it’s one kind of thing or another. But I think it’s good though. Don’t think Spandau Ballet, think Pink Floyd.”

VERY interestingly, Noel also revealed "There’s a song on this record that has taken me 23 years to finish. It’s called Lock All The Doors. I gave a bit of it away to the Chemical Brothers in the 90s when we did Setting Sun and I always meant to finish it but I could never get a way for the verse to tie in with the chorus. But one afternoon, I was coming out of the Tesco Metro in Maida Vale and it just hit me, it came to me in a flash of inspiration.”

A few UK tour dates for 2015 have been announced, and can be found below. Tickets are avalable from Friday (October 17), but a special fan pre-sale takes place this Wednesday morning at 9am. This excellent track will be released on November 16 as a digital download, and a limited 7" single, which features the new track 'Do The Damage'. That song is also featured on CD of the deluxe edition of the album, which also features a new version of unreleased Oasis fan favourite 'Revolution Song', and the much-loved 'Freaky Teeth', which Noel has played live a lot in the past.