Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Blue Moon Rising

- A look at Noel Gallagher’s recent discography with his High Flying Birds would suggest he’s been quite prolific. This continues with the new EP Blue Moon Rising, the latest of three EPs released since 2017’s Who Built The Moon? A closer look though reveals this apparent prolificacy to be a facade and this latest EP is simply the latest coat of paint.

For a start, all that’s saving its position as an EP rather than a maxi-single is that two of the tracks have already been released separately as singles in their own right- but two of the five tracks being remixes of the first certainly doesn’t boast of an abundance of original material. Nor does it lend itself to a pleasurable listening experience when you listen to a song, then an extended version of that song, and then a radio edit of the song all in the space of twenty minutes.

But this is the same formula as the last two EPs, Black Star Dancing and This Is The Place, the former of which even has a similar title to this latest release. They are all five tracks; title track first, followed by two other songs, which may or may not also have seen a separate single release, followed by two remixes. It’s a weird hybrid that offers either not enough content or not enough listening satisfaction to live up to the claim of being an EP.

And it’s not like the former Oasis mastermind is breaking new territory with each one. There is a bit, though not much, evolution between this EP series and the band’s last long player, but the evolution between EPs is virtually non-existent. The title track is dance with keys-heavy rock instrumentation, the second track has a more rock sound, the third track is something slightly different. That is all three EPs.

Maybe it’s because the evolution of the band’s sound has been so slow that they don’t feel it’s yet time for another album, but continuing to inch along EP after EP doesn’t hide the pace, it invites us along for the ride.

Blue Moon Rising is another three pretty good songs. The title track is quite similar to It’s A Beautiful World but not as catchy, but Come On Outside has a descent hook. I just think they’d be far nicer to listen to on what could by now be one quite good nine track album, not across three overly repetitive EPs.

- Sam Gunders.
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