Liam Gallagher — C’MON YOU KNOW — Album Review
Indie | Rock | Britpop
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
Disclaimer: This review will be for the deluxe version of the album, and will take into account all of the tracks included.
What’s honestly left to be said about Liam Gallagher? Being one of the two leading minds behind the iconic Britpop band Oasis, alongside his brother Noel Gallagher, his rockstar exterior shone brightly.
But of course, as we probably all know, the days of Oasis are a distant memory. Fortunately for fans however, both of the brothers are making moves with their solo careers. While Noel technically made a solo breakout first, after forming his new band High Flying Birds, it’s fair to say that it was Liam who had been releasing the more high-quality projects in recent years.
We first got a glimpse of this through Liam’s debut solo album As You Were, a 2017 project that really allowed the artist to stick out stylistically, whilst carrying all of the better elements that fans enjoyed from Oasis. However, I felt that his solo career was not only developed upon in terms of quantifying his discography, but also showing further stylistic evolution was his 2019 sophomore solo project Why Me? Why Not.
Almost three years later, we finally arrive at Liam’s third studio album; one that was teased before the closure of 2021, leading C’MON YOU KNOW to be one of the most highly anticipated albums of this current musical year in my mind.
Of course, I was feeling a lot more hopeful towards 2022 upon discovering that this album was going to be released this year. But even as we approach the midpoint of 2022, C’MON YOU KNOW attempts to spark that hopeful feeling once again through some of the most uplifting lyrics that Liam has put out on a solo album.
This album offers quite a lot stylistically as well. C’MON YOU KNOW might also be the biggest departure from the Oasis formula out of all of Liam’s solo albums as well. While, of course, Liam cannot help showing his age old charisma, as Liam does (and honestly, I wouldn’t want that changed), I would say that this album can stylistically be more closely tied to a Stone Roses project, by the merit of some of its best tracks.
Of course, the most prominent of these tracks, when thinking about that aforementioned stylistic change, would be the album’s earliest teaser, “Everything’s Electric”. However, newer tracks like “Diamond In The Dark” and “Don’t Go Halfway”. As well as this, we get a small batch of very unique tracks like the borderline gothic “Moscow Rules” and the 2000’s-esque soulfulness of “The Joker”.
However, there are a select handful of tracks on here that do feel lacklustre at best, mainly by fault of some uninspired lyrics from Liam. It’s a shame, but I feel that this leads to the album overall not quite having that same level of impact as his previous two solo releases.
Nevertheless, he definitely makes up for that with how satisfying his stylistic changes made to the album are. It definitely feels like a Liam Gallagher album through and through, and manages to let go of more of the Oasis tropes that he has been clinging onto for a while. I would still argue that this album serves as another step in the right direction, and shows that this artist can retain his greatness without the dependence on the band that got him to where he is today.
Favourite Tracks: Don’t Go Halfway | Everything’s Electric | Moscow Rules
Least Favourite Track: Oh Sweet Children
Warner Music
