Liam Gallagher

After As You Were (2017) and Why Me? Why Not (2019), Liam Gallagher is back in business with a third solo album, C'mon You Know. But not entirely on his own. The ex-Oasis and Beady Eye has always preferred to surround himself with others, and this time, it's Dave Grohl (on drums on Everything's Electric) and Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend (Better Days, C'Mon You Know) that he called upon. On the production side, we find the much sought-after Greg Kurstin (Adele, Paul McCartney) and Andrew Wyatt, with whom he has already collaborated. The compositions appear more attentive, more cut for the airwaves in places, but above all, more eclectic. Outside the traditional Mancunian zone, we find the heavy Everything's Electric with its fat riff and its more concise chorus, as well as some surprising yet beautiful reggae digressions on I'm Free.

Elsewhere we find the classic Wonderwall-style Britpop melodies, such as the excellent emotional peak Diamond In The Dark, or the more orchestral ones (Better Days, C'Mon You Know, Don't Go Halfway), in which the Mancunian's nasal and emblematic voice flows in long vowels. The album's songs revive the irresistible nineties hegemony of Oasis and demonstrate, if it were necessary, that the incandescent Liam also shines without Noel, and does so even more intensely in the simpler moments. Of course, the Beatles' influence remains strong when it comes to writing more delicate sixties pop illuminations, elegantly dressed with a decorum of strings, winds and mellotron (Moscow Rules, It Was Not Meant To Be), as well as the more latent influence of the Stone Roses (World's In Need).

Just one day before his two solo concerts in Knebworth, that is to say 26 years after the historic Oasis concerts where 250,000 spectators gathered, Liam Gallagher puts his best album in the stores, in all its modesty. Better and so rare, on the eve of his fiftieth birthday, never out of tune or cheesy, the rock star always shares his heart with even the youngest of fans ("It's your time/And it's your place/And I hope you'll not let either go to waste/Try to move, try to matter" on Oh Sweet Children), who will surely rise ecstatically, under the sun of other summers.