With the highly-anticipated Oasis documentary coming out soon, I wanted to do some more Oasis-related content. A lot of people say that the only good albums from Oasis are the first two from the ’90s. Yes, they tower over everything else they have released, but I still think there are gems later on, especially in their solo careers.

As You Were is the debut solo album by frontman Liam Gallagher, released in 2017. It came after a few years out of the limelight, due to the poor success and breakup of short-lived post-Oasis band Beady Eye. It was basically the final lineup of Oasis minus Noel!

However, Liam came roaring back into the spotlight with this brilliant rock n roll debut. Now, I’m not a massive fans of teams of songwriters in music, and would rather music was written solely by the singer or band. However, for Liam, the songwriters made the music a bit more grand and polished in my opinion, and are the reason I believe his solo career has had a lot more success than Beady Eye.

Highlights include rockers like lead single “Wall of Glass” and “Come Back To Me,” along with softer ballads like “Chinatown.” I also find the sequencing of the album interesting – tracks 4 to 6 are all slower songs but it manages to work as there is still rock n roll swagger in certain places of these tracks.

There is also a fair amount of solely Gallagher-penned songs – “Bold,” “Greedy Soul,” “You Better Run,” “I Get By,” “Universal Gleam” and “I’ve All I Need.” These are all very strong tracks in my opinion, along with the final two tracks on the deluxe version. The bonus track “Doesn’t Have to Be That Way” is also a more experimental Tame Impala style track which is interesting. I do think the last two tracks on the deluxe being acoustic is a poor sequencing choice though.

Overall, this is a very strong solo debut by Liam Gallagher. Even though it is very retro in composition, with Beatles and Stones references everywhere, the production and interesting sequencing make it feel fresh and modern to me. I also do wish Gallagher wrote more on his own on his subsequent solo albums – he has a very funny and surreal lyrical style seen in tracks like “All My People/All Mankind.”

A great debut before he released his second album, Why Me? Why Not. in 2019, where mowing the lawn on the weekend it came out bizarrely changed my opinion on it a lot! I will look at that album soon I’m sure. See you then.