Album: Different Gear Still Speeding
There are few people in this world who did not think that Liam would fall flat on his face as he tried to carry on without his brother. Some asked, “how could Liam be able to write songs that could even be considered passable without his brother?“ If you were one of those people, then you were almost right.
Different Gear Still Speeding, Beady Eye’s debut album, starts out on a high. “Four Letter Word” is full of gusto, brovado, and brute strength. On this track Liam is without some of his trademark sneer. (which was getting old). Instead, Liam goes with a bit more conventional singing style. This change makes for one Liam’s best vocal performances in years. The lyrics are simple, yet believable. (certainly not Dylan, but were you really expecting that?). And the music is hard hitting and in your face. Unfortunately for Beady Eye, “Millionaire” is not as successful. The song begins with a great acoustic intro, but fails to go anywhere after that. As with Songbird, this song is just underdeveloped.
Thankfully for Liam and for Beady Eye, “The Roller” cleans up the mess that Millionaire left behind. It is almost impossible to hear The Roller and not think Instant Karma, but just like with the Oasis glory days, you find yourself really not caring. The quality of the song is to such a point that the “influence” of where it came from really does not matter. The Roller is light, beautiful, and it is Liam at his songwriting best. At this point, one can not help but to think that Liam and company could be better than we thought, but of course then “Beatles And Stones” rears its ugly head. This song and “Bring The Light”, should not be on this album nor any other album. They are both b-side material at best. Both feature useless Jerry Lee Lewis like piano parts, and both have the most atrocious lyrics that I have ever heard. I could push Beatles And Stones into the dirt even more, but right now it’s not even fair.
“Wind Up Dream” (track 5) continues this trilogy of mediocrity. Liam sneers out “its just a wind up a dream, so don’t wake me up”, and all I can say is “just wake me up after this song this song is over.” The only parts of this song which are actually some what good, are the harmonica parts. The single largest element which brings this track down are the “ahhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhh” that Liam has to go to when he has nothing to say. I wish Liam would just be a tad bit more creative. But again thankfully we are saved from this album taking a turn to hell with a nice little track called “For Anyone.” For anyone is just a single line of melody that flows very nicely. It recalls the sunshiny days of the 60’s. It oozes with bright and exuberant energy. There is literally no way anyone can listen to this track without smiling (if you can’t, then you are probably not alive. So hurry up and go see a doctor).
Now I must say that at this point I was all for giving this album a pretty good rating, but then “Kill For A Dream” and “Standing On The Edge Of Noise” came on. Kill For A Dream is a dead end track. It just goes nowhere. It’s a contrived ballad that just sounds forced (even Liam’s vocals sounds forced) and Standing On The Edge Of Noise is exactly what the title suggests, that all you’re listening to is just noise.
So now you’re probably asking yourself; “is there a white steed which will come and save the day for Beady Eye?” “Well guess what? There is.” “Wigwam” is probably the most adventurous that Liam will ever get. The tracks starts out muddled and slow, but then becomes a majestic dream toward the middle and end of the song. A simple yet eloquent use of vocal harmonies, combined with a pretty hooky line in “I’m coming up.” combines to make this song a must listen.
But of course, who was really fooled into thinking that Beady Eye could stay in this bliss (okay I did, but that doesn’t count). Well if you thought that they would, then you must have felt pretty deflated when “Three Ring Circus” came on. Three Ring Circus can only be described as a flat rocker. There are points where it sounds as if it could go somewhere, but in the end, a flat chorus bring it down and makes it into a pretty forgettable track.
“The Beat Goes On” also has it high moments, but in the end it also disappoints. The main issue which I have with this track is the fact that I can literally find this song a hundred different albums, by a hundred different albums. There is nothing that separates it from any other big sentimental ballad. It also does not help that the chorus leaves much to be desired. The final track is “The Morning Son”. Now I must admit that I was expecting a large song like Wigwam as the ending (Probably because I was in a Champagne Supernova mode after listening to Wigwam), but I was wrong. The Morning Son leaves much to be desired when it comes to lyrics. Again, Liam doing the “la la la la” bit. The song suffers from a lack of detail. It seems as if Beady Eye put a lot of their energy into the outro, instead of putting it into the rest of the song. I truly wish that the song was as good as that outro, but unfortunately it is not.
All in all, Different Gear Still Speeding was much better than what I expected it to be. Having said that though, I can not help but to be disappointed. When one hears songs like “For Anyone”, “The Roller”, or “Wigwam”, they will probably wonder “how is it the rest of the songs on this album aren‘t as good as these?” That is the question which keeps this album from being better than decent. On this album Beady Eye succeeded in gaining respect, unfortunately they did not succeed enough to be considered really good or even pretty good. They just were not consistent enough.
Rating: 6/10 or 3/5 stars
Songs to Listen to:
For Anyone
Wigwam
The Roller
Four Letter Word
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