Noel Gallagher returns with new EP This Is The Place, focussing on dreamy, sensory experience steeped in dance beats and hypnotic energy.
I am going, to be honest here. I am a died in the wool fan of Noel Gallagher and everything he has done with both High Flying Birds and Oasis. I am listening to an EP from the man who wrote one of my all-time favourite lines in a rock song: “Please don’t put your lives in the hands of a rock and roll band We’ll throw it all away.” This is the most perfect line for me and a message between rock stars and their fans. So, I know I can’t lose with this one. Noel’s music has shaped a generation’s consciousness and, for many people out there, music IS their education and forms a great part of their identity. There are many people, myself included, who would never be able to recite a Shakespeare poem but they would know every single word of Champagne Supernova.
Noel’s directness and connection with his fans in both person and his music have always been something extraordinary, and with This is the Place he continues this special connection with the listener. He has always presented himself as a real person, no matter how famous he has become and this down to earth approach is one of the strengths in this latest release. This new EP is a bit of a departure from previous High Flying Birds music and This is the place is an epic sensory experience – it’s swirling, dance-able and dreamy – a rare groove with a pearl of softer wisdom and some departure from earlier much loved hedonistic Oasis tracks. Evil Flower is hypnotic, sexy and languid: “They say you want love, You’re like an evil flower, That the cattle will crush, As you walk on by.”
This Is The Place – Denis and Pika Remix is the same title track again but remixed to create a pure out and out dance track and again covering new ground for a Gallagher tune.
Evil Flower – The Reflex Revision has the funkiest guitar solo and continues that departure into dance music. There are reminiscences of the Black Star Dancing EP featuring just the right amount of familiarity and departure.
This EP is brilliant, I love it and I will have these tunes in my head for some time to come.
Score: 5/5
By Victoria Pearson