The Girl That Electrifies The Storm

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds “Riverman”

This one starts off sounding like Noel Gallagher trying to remember how to play “Wonderwall,” but then kinda getting into this other groove before getting distracted and deciding to turn the whole thing into his version of something from Dark Side of the Moon. But I don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. This is actually one of the best and most surprising songs Gallagher has done in a while, and something that shows him expanding his palette a bit beyond a range of textures and tones that he has barely strayed from since around 1997. A lot of what made the first couple Oasis records so brilliant was in the very sound of it – the full spectrum of abrasive, overwhelming guitar noise on Definitely Maybe, and the warm acoustic tones throughout (What’s the Story) Morning Glory. There’s this large expanse of Gallagher’s body of work where he seems bored by his own music and seems to go on autopilot, but I don’t get that feeling with “Riverman” at all. The lyrics may be kinda boilerplate, but I hear actual vulnerability and emotion in his vocal performance, and existential despair in the instrumentals, even if it’s just him quoting Roger Waters’ version of expressing that feeling.

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