Liam Gallagher
Why Me? Why Not.
Release Date: Sep 20, 2019
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Warner Bros.
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Album Review: Why Me? Why Not. by Liam Gallagher
Very Good, Based on 10 Critics
Based on rating 8
"I know my strengths and I know my limitations. I'm an OK songwriter but I'm a great singer and frontman", said Liam Gallagher when he spoke about the ambition for his second album, safe in the knowledge that he wanted to take things further this time. His debut album 'As You Were' from 2017 arrived with an Oasis tag attached. It was polished but the recognisable punk spirit and attitude was there.
Based on rating 4/5
A classic sequel that adds depth of character, this follow-up to Liam's Platinum-selling debut is best when he's introspective. And wait 'til Noel hears the "cosmic pop" Early last year, Liam Gallagher promised NME that his second solo album would be "a bit more in-your-face" than 'As You Were', the Platinum-shifting game-changer that reignited his career. It would be "less apologetic", he said, adding: "I'd love to do a proper out-and-out punk rock album - a bit Pistols, a bit Stooges." Well, 'Why Me? Why Not.' only half-delivers on that promise, though it's a certainly a worthy victory lap for his lauded comeback.
Based on rating 7/10
Give Liam Gallagher considerable credit for a streak of wry self-awareness. The shrug lying within the title Why Me? Why Not. doesn't read as arrogance, it plays as a joke. Coming from a singer who once sneered at any emotion that came his way, this is a sign of maturity. The album -- his second as ….
Based on rating 3.5/5
Liam Gallagher is many things, of which one is a man who knows what his people want. Massive festival sets - often headlining - jam-packed with Oasis singalongs; albums that don't feature recordings of scissors. So that 'Why Me? Why Not.' is largely drive time guitar rock with nods to the '60s (the album is named after two drawings by - who else? - John Lennon, both of which Liam owns) and a deft line in somewhat cringeworthy rhyming couplets (it's between 'Once''s "feels so uncool / just clean the pool / and send the kids to school" and "I'm so low / I'm so high / I'm tight-lipped / I'm Jedi" on the title track) should surprise nobody.
Based on rating 7/10
Good news is, "Shockwave" is one of the worst things about Liam's second solo outing, Why Me? Why Not. Where debut As You Were leaned on its rockers - songs Liam's voice was clearly built for - as an antidote to the album's largely amorphous, vanilla balladry, Liam's sophomore offering succeeds despite them. Engaging co-writers for each track on Why Me? Why Not, Liam reportedly desired to record a better As You Were, which he declared was braver than altering the blueprint at all.
Based on rating 6.5/10
His second solo album in as many years, Liam Gallagher's Why Me? Why Not. follows the well-received As You Were with a sometimes straightforward rock 'n' roll record with a surprisingly inspiring and upbeat message. Baggy, deflated lead single and opener "Shockwave" misleads us into believing that the album may be short on the gigantic choruses required to make stadium indie rock work—its failure to convert a soaring melody into a neuron-firing hook is borderline criminal when you consider the talent involved in the writing—Greg Kurstin (Katy Perry, Adele, Paul McCartney) and Andrew Wyatt (Oscar winner for his work on A Star Is Born) both worked with Gallagher to create so damp a squib.
Based on rating 6.3/10
There's a moment on "Halo," the fifth song on Liam Gallagher's Why Me? Why Not., where the rocker breaks down and a flute comes to the forefront in a flourish of purple psychedelia. At that precise moment, it's hard not to think of "Halo" as a sideways dig at "Holy Mountain," the pounding, flute-filled first single from Noel Gallagher's 2017 album, Who Built the Moon? Then again, it's generally hard to think of Liam Gallagher without thinking of his estranged sibling. More than being just brothers, the pair have historically had complementary strengths, with Noel providing Oasis their songs and Liam giving the band its voice and charisma.
Opinion: Great
The Lowdown: The rivalry between the Gallagher brothers is one of music's most infamous, and it's something neither brother seems able to walk away from regardless of how hard they try. Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher went directly from the band's 2009 breakup into fronting Beady Eye, but it wasn't until he launched his solo career that he regained focus. The 2017 release of his debut, As You Were, tapped into the nostalgia vein for Oasis fans and was strong, despite a few fumbles.
Opinion: Fairly Good
G reat pop or rock songs tend to be progressive, powered by change or escape or desire, or an alloy of those impulses. Even nostalgia rock, which seems deeply conservative, is about wanting to escape into the past, a frustrated desire to reverse time. On his second solo album, Liam Gallagher does a lot of looking back. Singles Shockwave, One of Us and Once cannily evoke the endless psychodrama of his relationship with estranged brother Noel.
Opinion: Fairly Good
Y ou can accuse Liam Gallagher of many things, but never of selling his music under false pretences. Not for Our Kid the public admonishment of reviewers who've failed to grasp its fathomless depths and manifold subtleties, nor the angry social media announcement that critics have missed that his gift is the warmth he lives his life with and the self-reflection he shares so generously (as Lana Del Rey recently admonished an NPR journalist). He deals, he told the Guardian last year, in "meat and veg rock'n'roll": "I'm here to give people what they want, and if that's boring, so be it." To Gallagher Jr, music is like football: "I'm never going to change my fucking football team." He knows his audience.
'Why Me? Why Not.'
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