Beady Eye
Different Gear, Still Speeding
Release Date: Mar 1, 2011
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Record label: Dangerbird Records
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Album Review: Different Gear, Still Speeding by Beady Eye
Fairly Good, Based on 15 Critics
Based on rating 5/5
With Oasis dismembered following the Gallagher brothers' final brawl in Paris in 2009, chief songwriter Noel preps a solo album while the remaining members carry on as Beady Eye. On Different Gear, the group attempts stripped-down, Stones-y rock but ends up with Be Here Now-style guitar bluster and Liam's blithely boilerplate lyrics ("I like what I see with my eyes shut," he sings on "Wind Up Dream"). Beady Eye are best when they keep it spry, as on "Bring the Light," which is full of girl-group harmonies and furious Jerry Lee piano.
Based on rating 10/10
Why do Beady Eye even exist? A gesture of spite directed at Noel Gallagher? That would be kind of rock’n’roll. Money? I mean, maybe… while it’s dispiriting to contemplate the fact that Gem Archer is probably vastly more wealth than anybody who will ever read this review, it's not like rich folks are against getting richer. Is it because Beady Eye's three songwriter members – who’d spent the last several years in a band that was virtually a tribute act to the early songs of Noel Gallagher - were genuinely convinced that the world needed to hear their latest compositions? In his heart of hearts, could even Liam think that? To be honest, I doubt Beady Eye exist for any of those reasons.
Based on rating 7/10
Common sense never counted for much within Oasis. Everything that should have come easily never did, with the band stumbling and squabbling through stardom, creating great individual moments but somehow just missing a masterpiece. Conventional wisdom painted the brothers Gallagher as ego and id incarnate, the former belonging to classical craftsman Noel and the latter to shaggy animal Liam, but after the group’s 2009 split the journeymen that filled out the rest of Oasis stuck with the younger Gallagher, the quartet going on to perform as Beady Eye, releasing Different Gear, Still Speeding in early 2011.
Based on rating 7/10
People really seem to want Beady Eye to fail. Between the two Oasis-era Gallaghers, Liam generally gets the lion’s share of the scorn; they’re both acerbic jerks, but Noel’s sense of humor is maybe a little easier to read. Liam, on the other hand, comes off like he truly believes it when he says things like his new band’s debut, Different Gear, Still Speeding, is “as good as (Oasis debut) Definitely Maybe, if not better.” First things first: Different Gear, Still Speeding is hardly a disaster, and is, in fact, a mostly enjoyable rock & roll record.
Based on rating 3/5
BEADY EYE rock Sound Academy June 20. See listing. Rating: NNN Despite the departure of his brother Noel, Liam Gallagher felt that Oasis wasn't broken, just in need of a few small repairs. So with the band's former bassist, Andy Bell, now on guitar and a new name slapped on like a fresh decal on an old road case, here comes Beady Eye, chasing that first musical high of Oasis's debut, Definitely Maybe.
Based on rating 3.0/5
Review Summary: Liam & Co. choose not to look back in angerThe news of Oasis’ demise was met with two distinct reactions. One was a hearty rejoicing; the end of the Beatles wannabe, tabloid-baiting carnival. The other was of a regret that, despite their many faults, a great and memorable group had passed on.
Based on rating 3/5
"We don't go off road and say, 'Let's make a fucking Captain Beefheart record,'" Liam Gallagher recently said of Beady Eye, a blow for anyone who loved Oasis' restless commitment to the musical avant garde. Still, the best bits of Different Gear Still Speeding sound least like the band Beady Eye used to be: the breezily melodic Millionaire is fantastic, the episodic Wigwam more ambitious than you might expect. Elsewhere, there's some very slender songwriting, and Gallagher Jr apes the plonking lyrics that made his brother look more dim than he actually is.
Based on rating 3.0/5
There are no prizes for guessing whose influence most greatly pervades Liam Gallagher’s first post-Oasis effort, and to call Beady Eye’s Different Gear, Still Speeding a Beatles-esque record is more than just a minor understatement. Indeed, this affair is no less Beatles-esque than Revolver or Abbey Road, though it rarely threatens to touch on their immeasurable quality. One can imagine Liam delivering each raspy couplet (some of which are far too easy: “In the eye of the storm, there’s no right and there’s no wrong”) with Lennon’s iconic round specs resting on his ample beak, working under the assumption that genius can somehow be reproduced or borrowed.
Based on rating 5.2/10
I, along with my fellow freshmen English composition classmates, learned a lot about plagiarism when we entered college: It’s taboo. Don’t do it. You’ll get kicked out if you do. Even more importantly, though, it’s dishonest. The Gallagher brothers must have missed orientation—they’ve ….
Based on rating 5/10
I thought I had this one all figured out before I’d even started listening. Different Gear, Still Speeding, I would say, is the final nail in the Oasis coffin. Without a big name to fall back on, the band’s woeful inadequacies of the sixteen years since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? would be brutally exposed. Chart failure seems inevitable, I would continue, and what remains of the band since Noel’s departure may finally decide to call it a day.
Based on rating D
Liam Gallagher has never been one to shy away from boasting his own talents or making ridiculous claims. However, late last year he proclaimed that his new band, Beady Eye, would not be Oasis 2.0, but would basically blow everything Oasis did out of the water. If you’re going to make such bold statements, you really need to be able to back them up – at least even partly.
Opinion: Very Good
When everything is said and done, Beady Eye will always be remembered as the band that 3/4ths of Oasis formed after Oasis imploded. Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer, and Andy Bell added Chris Sharrock to play drums, and enlisted esteemed producer Steve Lilywhite to announce themselves to the world on their debut Different Gear, Still Speeding. In interviews, Liam (the last of the great rock stars) has proclaimed the album would be better than Oasis’ landmark debut Definitely Maybe.
Opinion: Very Good
When rock is done right, there’s really nothing better. Fortunately, four members of Oasis – Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock – deliver just that as Beady Eye. The group’s debut album mixes blazing guitar riffs with pound-on-the-dashboard beats flavored with pop, blues and soul. That’s got to be a surprise to those that thought Noel Gallagher was the sole visionary in Oasis.
Opinion: Very Good
Debut album by some bloke from a Britpop band. Paul Lester 2011 Considering that Noel Gallagher wrote the majority of Oasis’ songs, best or otherwise, and that Liam’s role throughout their chequered history was to be the charismatic bit of rough, and bearing in mind that the latter’s contributions to the Oasis canon were hardly propitious, it’s actually quite staggering that Beady Eye’s debut album is anything less than abysmal. In fact, it’s pretty fine, really good in places, with moments that eclipse most Oasis material since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory.
Opinion: Very Good
With so much hostility and hyperbole surrounding [a]Beady Eye[/a], half the music world getting ready to laugh, the other half expecting big things, [b]‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’[/b] is something of an anti-climax on first listen. Neither disaster nor classic, the album nevertheless has to be regarded as something of triumph, since it manages to put clear water between [a]Beady Eye[/a] and [a]Oasis[/a]. And the biggest surprise is that, away from Noel, Liam hasn’t just turned this group into the ultimate Faces-style lads’ band.Instead, this album is, well, quite soft actually.
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