“Meant to be played once”: the album Noel Gallagher said should never be heard again
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Any artist hopes to find that magical melody that stays with people for generations. Regardless of how many times they spend chipping away at a song until it’s right, it’s usually always worth it once it’s out in the world and being sung by stadiums of people once the opening chords of the tune start. Noel Gallagher may be the proud owner of many iconic tunes, but he knew that the staying power varied amongst every Oasis project.
Granted, it’s almost expected for any artist to have some opinion about their albums not being as good as they could have been. Most records are bound to be finished in the artist’s head only a few months before they come out, and while the cutting-edge effects may have worked well for the time, some will end up making songs sound like a brilliant time capsule as well.
Take a record like Phil Collins’s ‘In the Air Tonight’. Of course, everyone remembers that iconic drum break in the middle of the tune and the tension that it takes to get there, but listening to it with fresh ears today, what was considered the height of drum recording at the time ends up feeling a bit timestamped in the 1980s, despite everyone and their mother pulling from Collins’s playbook.
While Noel’s inspiration came from bands 30 years older than him half the time, it didn’t seem to matter as long as he had the melodies to back it up. ‘She’s Electric’ already felt like a lost relic from the days when Paul McCartney made his ‘granny music’, but with the kickass guitar solo in the background and the drums pounding away, it still had the power that Oasis always needed behind their tunes.
“It was just meant to be played once, on that day, high as a kite, preferably in the park, pissed – then never listened to again.”
Noel Gallagher
Then again, Be Here Now may have had too much power for some people. As much as people loved it upon release and heralded it as the great Britpop triumph, the idea of filling out every track on two separate mixing consoles is a recipe for ear fatigue, especially when people get to the final sections of ‘All Around the World’ and begin to feel their temples throbbing from the sheer amount of guitars being thrown on top of everything.
And while Noel has customarily let the fans be the deciding factor on his albums, he admitted that the record only needed to be heard once, saying, “Coyley and Phil, my pals from Manchester, summed this album up best. They’ve always said: ‘It was just meant to be played once, on that day, high as a kite, preferably in the park, pissed – then never listened to again. Why didn’t I think of that?!”
But that would also leave a lot of great music on the table. No matter how many times fans badmouth his record on principle for marking the death of Britpop, songs like ‘Don’t Go Away’ and ‘Stand By Me’ have strong enough melodies to get fans singing along, even if the tracks themselves are much better served on the live stage.
Noel may not have that much affection for the record, but there’s something slightly romantic about being able to listen to the entire album only once as well. It’s definitely not something that warrants the same amount of spins as Definitely Maybe or What’s the Story Morning Glory, but the idea of only hearing the album once under the right circumstances would make the whole thing feel like a dream. Albeit, one that leaves your ears bleeding.
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