Nobody embodied 90s cool quite like Oasis front man Liam Gallagher. Even his brother turned nemesis, former bandmate Noel, spent a good chunk of last year’s documentary Oasis: Supersonic musing about how tall, good-looking, well-dressed, and beautifully coiffed Liam is. When Oasis first appeared in 1994, Gallagher was the kind of rock star people hadn’t seen since the 70s—hard-partying, off the rails, bursting with cockiness and swagger. He also had one of the greatest voices in rock history, a gorgeous blend of snotty whine and gin-soaked soul. The drama of Oasis’s breakup eventually came to overshadow their legacy as a band, and Liam’s post-Oasis outfit, Beady Eye, sounded more like the death rattle of his musical career than the work of an adored rock star. As You Were (Warner Brothers), his solo debut, is set for an October release, and fortunately its singles (“Wall of Glass” and “Chinatown”) hint that Liam’s got some life in him yet. The songs aren’t mind-blowing by any means—his voice has become nasal and thin over the years, and the Oasis Lite fare lacks the explosive choruses Noel provided. But moments of genius bubble up here and there, such as when Liam’s casual confidence turns the simple, breezy refrain of “Chinatown” into something stirring and beautiful. v
