Download: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Alone on the Rope

Download — By Andrew Evans on 03/10/11

Since Noel Gallagher announced his High Flying Birds project, most of the UK music industry has waited with baited breath. Waiting, indeed, for some music.  When it eventually came in the form of The Death of You and Me, some cheered it’s singalong chorus and its simple, stomping  shtick. Others however, were dissapointed in Noel’s apparent inability to draw inspiration from anything other than the same handful of groups that had influenced Oasis – namely The Beatles, The Kinks, The Stone blah blah blah…

Which camp you fell into really depended on what you wanted from him. Reworking the Oasis songbook for FM rock n roll? Or a more mature venture into paths as yet untrodden? That his second single was the very Oasis-y If I Had A Gun, it was clear that the album was slipping one way more than the other.

Alone on the Rope however, is good. Really good. It’s got a shuffling 3/4 groove with wistful, reverbed vocals and lovely piano. It’s our favourite of his by a country mile, but it won’t be featuring on the album. Nope. As Oasis’s b-sides collection The Masterplan confirmed, Mr. Gallagher’s most interesting songs often have a knack for not making the cut.

Shame.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Alone On The Rope (right click) 

NOEL GALLAGHER  |  ALAN CLARKE PHOTOGRAPHY