Twenty-six years after Oasis' 1996 two-night stint on the grounds of Hertfordshire's Knebworth House, their frontman, Liam Gallagher, achieved the same feat as a solo artist. This live album captures the best takes from his June 2022 Jubilee weekend dates at the same venue in front of 170,000 people. The set leans heavily on Oasis material but also features renditions of songs from his three U.K. number one solo studio albums.© James Wilkinson /TiVo

Following through with the avant-garde inclinations of Station to Station, yet explicitly breaking with David Bowie's past, Low is a dense, challenging album that confirmed his place at rock's cutting edge. Driven by dissonant synthesizers and electronics, Low is divided between brief, angular songs and atmospheric instrumentals. Throughout the record's first half, the guitars are jagged and the synthesizers drone with a menacing robotic pulse, while Bowie's vocals are unnaturally layered and overdubbed. During the instrumental half, the electronics turn cool, which is a relief after the intensity of the preceding avant pop. Half the credit for Low's success goes to Brian Eno, who explored similar ambient territory on his own releases. Eno functioned as a conduit for Bowie's ideas, and in turn Bowie made the experimentalism of not only Eno but of the German synth group Kraftwerk and the post-punk group Wire respectable, if not quite mainstream. Though a handful of the vocal pieces on Low are accessible -- "Sound and Vision" has a shimmering guitar hook, and "Be My Wife" subverts soul structure in a surprisingly catchy fashion -- the record is defiantly experimental and dense with detail, providing a new direction for the avant-garde in rock & roll.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

From the cries of “Liaaaaaaam” between each song on this MTV Unplugged, it is clear that adulation for the younger of the Gallagher brothers remains intact eleven years after Oasis broke up. And while his Beady Eye and solo recordings show that the Mancunian has no wish to retire soon, it’s the bangers from his former band that once again steal the spotlight  of this live performance in Hull. Even Liam Gallagher seems more at home as he launches into Some Might Say, Cast No Shadow and Champagne Supernova as opposed to tracks from his solo album Why Me? Why Not. For the Oasis titles, Liam manages even to bring Bonehead along, the band’s old rhythm guitarist. And to make the spectacle all that more impressive, he is joined by musicians from the Urban Soul Orchestra who provide a welcome supplementary touch of class. This MTV Unplugged highlights the vocal progression of an artist who has rarely sang so well. © Clotilde Maréchal/Qobuz

With such a unique voice that’s recognizable from the first syllable, it’s impossible to listen to a Liam Gallagher song without Oasis coming to mind. And this first proper solo album from the younger of the two most famous British squabbling siblings is clearly no exception to the rule… After a short fling with Beady Eye which gave the world two more than honest albums, Liam Gallagher has now published the first album under his own name. And since there’s no risk of him changing his ways at the age of 45, we find here all the sixties obsessions that nourished the music of his illustrious group that he created with his equally illustrious brother. Apart from here the pen isn’t in Noel’s hand, but Liam’s! And it’s clear that his songs not only shape up nicely but also have a certain panache! As You Were is teeming with potential hits, as they are often relieved of potentially superfluous arrangements or illuminations. A vitality perhaps linked to him crawling back out of his hole with the end of Oasis, the failure of his Beady Eye records and above all his divorce that sent him packing. A nice comeback as it were. © CM/Qobuz

Following through with the avant-garde inclinations of Station to Station, yet explicitly breaking with David Bowie's past, Low is a dense, challenging album that confirmed his place at rock's cutting edge. Driven by dissonant synthesizers and electronics, Low is divided between brief, angular songs and atmospheric instrumentals. Throughout the record's first half, the guitars are jagged and the synthesizers drone with a menacing robotic pulse, while Bowie's vocals are unnaturally layered and overdubbed. During the instrumental half, the electronics turn cool, which is a relief after the intensity of the preceding avant pop. Half the credit for Low's success goes to Brian Eno, who explored similar ambient territory on his own releases. Eno functioned as a conduit for Bowie's ideas, and in turn Bowie made the experimentalism of not only Eno but of the German synth group Kraftwerk and the post-punk group Wire respectable, if not quite mainstream. Though a handful of the vocal pieces on Low are accessible -- "Sound and Vision" has a shimmering guitar hook, and "Be My Wife" subverts soul structure in a surprisingly catchy fashion -- the record is defiantly experimental and dense with detail, providing a new direction for the avant-garde in rock & roll.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Following through with the avant-garde inclinations of Station to Station, yet explicitly breaking with David Bowie's past, Low is a dense, challenging album that confirmed his place at rock's cutting edge. Driven by dissonant synthesizers and electronics, Low is divided between brief, angular songs and atmospheric instrumentals. Throughout the record's first half, the guitars are jagged and the synthesizers drone with a menacing robotic pulse, while Bowie's vocals are unnaturally layered and overdubbed. During the instrumental half, the electronics turn cool, which is a relief after the intensity of the preceding avant pop. Half the credit for Low's success goes to Brian Eno, who explored similar ambient territory on his own releases. Eno functioned as a conduit for Bowie's ideas, and in turn Bowie made the experimentalism of not only Eno but of the German synth group Kraftwerk and the post-punk group Wire respectable, if not quite mainstream. Though a handful of the vocal pieces on Low are accessible -- "Sound and Vision" has a shimmering guitar hook, and "Be My Wife" subverts soul structure in a surprisingly catchy fashion -- the record is defiantly experimental and dense with detail, providing a new direction for the avant-garde in rock & roll.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

After Five Years (1969 – 1973) and Who Can I Be Now ? (1974 – 1976), to dive into the box set A New Career In A New Town (1977 – 1982), is to zoom in on David Bowie's Berlin period. In 1977, Ziggy moored up in the German city, then disfigured by a wall. With Diamond Dogs in 1974 and in particular Young Americans the following year, soul and funk were suffused with a rock’n’roll sound. But this Bowie was to be eclipsed by a colder, more cerebral, experimental Bowie. Always ready to re-invent himself, to follow trends (when he wasn't setting them himself...) and simply to question things, he flew to Berlin, where things were in motion. Alongside Brian Eno, formerly of Roxy Music, he wrote his famous Berlin trilogy, which opened with Low. On this bizarre record, everything begins with a weird baroque soul instrumental, with electronic textures (Speed of Light), then a balanced mix of songs and other instrumental tracks. Capable of delivering futurist soul (Sound And Vision), a sombre and mysterious symphony (Warszawa), new-wave minimalism that sounded like a Sci-Fi soundtrack (Art Decade) or disjointed, cubist rock (Breaking Glass), this was David Bowie revisiting his experiences with Krautrock from groups like Neu!, Can and Faust, playing with Kraftwerk's machines but remaining himself: a genially insane savant still ahead of his time. Heroes, which stands out from the crowd, essentially follows the same recipe, but in warmer tones. In the still-immured German city, his music recalled the halcyon days of the raging punk movement that was thundering in his native England. Flanked by mad machines (once again piloted by Eno) and weird guitars (by  Robert Fripp, ex-member of King Crimson), Bowie channelled his experiments with electronic flavours (Neuköln) into compositions with more rounded melodies (Heroes, The Beauty And The Beast, Joe The Lion). Heroes is above all the cult album which would mark both new wave and the cold wave that followed… Released in May 1979, Lodger closes the Berlin period in a more consensual (but less passionate) spirit. Recorded at Montreux and in New York by Tony Visconti, with Brian Eno still to hand, it features a Bowie who is having fun taking a look into world music, and in particular at the work of the group Talking Heads. This is hardly surprising, when we note that David Byrne's group was then working with Eno... Nevertheless, the ensemble remains startling and less homogeneous than the two previous records. After this avant-garde trilogy, the British artist casts off some of his froideur, but not the madness, of his experiments with genre, with Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) which came out in 1980. Between self-assured modern funk (Fashion and its angular groove) and a re-visited new wave (Ashes To Ashes), he paints a new rainbow, as dense as ever, and still in step with the many currents of its time. A perfect marriage of the 70s and 80s, this brilliant neo-punk cabaret contains powerful compositions that are classic in content and daring in form. Forever in search of the unexpected, the Thin White Duke takes on board a post-Television song from Tom Verlaine (Kingdom Come), invites The Who's Pete Townshend to play on Because You're Young, and, on half of the tracks, offers Robert Fripp crazy, out-of-control guitar sequences. Alongside remasters of Low, Heroes, Lodger, Stage and Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), this box set offers Lodger remixed and co-produced by Visconti, Re:Call 3, a compilation of singles, B-sides and rarities including Heroes sung in German and French. © MZ/Qobuz

With such a unique voice that’s recognizable from the first syllable, it’s impossible to listen to a Liam Gallagher song without Oasis coming to mind. And this first proper solo album from the younger of the two most famous British squabbling siblings is clearly no exception to the rule… After a short fling with Beady Eye which gave the world two more than honest albums, Liam Gallagher has now published the first album under his own name. And since there’s no risk of him changing his ways at the age of 45, we find here all the sixties obsessions that nourished the music of his illustrious group that he created with his equally illustrious brother. Apart from here the pen isn’t in Noel’s hand, but Liam’s! And it’s clear that his songs not only shape up nicely but also have a certain panache! As You Were is teeming with potential hits, as they are often relieved of potentially superfluous arrangements or illuminations. A vitality perhaps linked to him crawling back out of his hole with the end of Oasis, the failure of his Beady Eye records and above all his divorce that sent him packing. A nice comeback as it were. © CM/Qobuz