Beady Eye
‘Bring The Light’
(Beady Eye Recordings)

Oasis are back! Sort of! With Noel buggered off and Liam in charge, what they’ve sacrificed in songcraft they’ve more than made up for with bombast. “I bring the light/you get to see/you bring the love/it’s ecstasy” gargles Liam over the opening pomp. Sadly, the initial rush of it all doesn’t last long. Yeah, there’s a boozy honky-tonk piano juddering along in the background and, yeah, there’s a small gathering of gospel singers knocking around the chorus, but any appeal is undone by the moronically incessant final third, where Liam bleats “Baby C’mon!” again and again. It’s incredibly irritating and turns the final minute into a mental gauntlet. Just for sitting through it there should be some sort of prize. Aside from this though, the fact is that ‘Bring The Light’ sounds unbelievably dated; massively out of time, like a Neanderthal trying to operate an Apple Mac with his forehead. Amazing, really, when you consider that Oasis’ final offering, ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ was their finest album in a decade. On this evidence, Beady Eye sound like Oasis in regression. No. We can’t believe it either.

JJ Dunning