You're trying to walk in my shoes, but they don't belong to you

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

25/06/21 : Back The Way We Came Vol 1 - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds



OK - I have a couple of problems with NGHFB and the first one is that in any self-respecting world they'd just be called HFB and they'd live or die by the music they produce.  I actually hope that Noel isn't to blame - he seems like the normal Gallagher brother (it's all relative) and I fear that some record executive demanded his name be attached to the band.  The other problem is that despite him being the relatively normal one, it's Liam that's produced the more interesting music since they decided never to speak to each other again - some of the stuff he did with Beady Eye is actually not bad at all.  In comparison, the stuff from NGHFB is worthy, obviously involves some skill but is oh-so-desperately dull.

So - you can imagine what I was expecting from volume 1 (saints preserve us!) of a "best of".  I did listen to it though - honest!  And I didn't really mind it.  But could I name a single track off it? - no, I couldn't.  And if I were to listen to it another half a dozen times, then that situation would not change.  Seriously, what's the point to this?

We're at #2 in the charts this week, kept off the top by Olivia but it debuted at #1 in the previous week and managed a 10 week run before disappearing (which is a mere 10 weeks more than it deserved).  New entries in the top 10 this week were Nick Cave/ Warren Ellis (#3 - which I've met before and is, errr, interesting), Griff (#4 - which I had high hopes for, but is it a bit "meh" except for "Black Hole" and is only 7 tracks/20 minutes) and Joan Armatrading (#10 - only 45 years after she first charted!).

Wikipedia has very little on the album and I'm perfectly fine with that, but was slightly amused to hear the album cover was inspired by Best Of The Bee Gees (and if you check it out, it really was!).  The album did OK though - #1 here, #2 in Ireland and top 20 in quite a few other places.

"Customers also listened to" Oasis, Beady Eye and Liam - the fans don't stray too far it seems.  Beady Eye win any music contest hands down for me - not that all their stuff is great, but at least they feel like they're trying.  Which very much doesn't feel to be the case here, I'm afraid.

18/06/21 - Better than I was expecting
02/07/21 - I don't really see who would like this

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