‘Why Me? Why Not?’ Demonstrates the Brilliant Lunacy of Liam Gallagher 

Adi Mehta

In the ‘90s, Oasis was the biggest band in Britain, and if you ask Liam Gallagher, they were, are, and always will be the best band in the world. It’s common knowledge that his brother Noel was the brain of the band, and Liam was the personality. Yet, this is rock ‘n’ roll, and personality is nothing to discount. Liam isn’t much of a songwriter, and although he did pen a few tracks for his 2017 debut solo album, “As You Were,” most were co-written with seasoned professionals. At any rate, the album shot right to the top, making mincemeat of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. For his follow up, “Why Me? Why Not?,” Liam has used co-writers for all songs, and supersized the effort with string sections and elaborate arrangements. Whatever the process, it’s yielded one hell of a rock ‘n’ roll record.

The aptly titled opener “Shockwave” begins with blaring guitars, soon to be joined by the oddly guitar-like harmonica that Oasis fans will recognize from their back catalogue. In moments, the band is raging, tightly-knit, as Gallagher projects with attitude, before donning his singsong voice for the bridge, then erupting into a mammoth chorus, replete with calls of “Hey,” and sonorous backing vocals. He exudes confidence in a way consistent with his notoriously ludicrous persona. The vocals are double, perhaps quadrupled tracked — no great surprise, considering Gallagher’s obsession with the Beatles. John Lennon couldn’t stand the sound of his lone voice, so often used double tracking to fill out and thicken the sound. Left to his own devices, Gallagher seems to have taken this further.

“One of Us” is slower, mellow and reflective. The vocal melody bears some resemblance to that of Coldplay’s “Violet Hill,” which is interesting, considering Liam’s long history of insulting Coldplay in truly inventive ways — like saying frontman Chris Martin looks like “a Geography teacher.” On the other hand, Noel has gone on record calling Coldplay’s “Yellow” a song  “that I wish I could have written.” Gallagher is all about big rock ‘n’ roll gestures, like building up to a climactic line, for the band to explode, and he seizes every such opportunity. In this song, he cues a full jam session. Handclaps enter with a certain swing, the strings go wild, and “Hey hey” backing vocals add the final touch, giving something of a gospel feel. Gallagher has always been open about having limited musical abilities beyond singing. For this track, he takes up the tambourine and shaker, while his son Gene makes his debut performance on the bongos. 

“Once” recalls Syd Barrett’s solo work, in the sluggish disregard of its bare strumming and oddball drawl, Upon the second verse, the rhythm section and strings enter, and the song takes on a whole new dimension. When Gallagher sings, “But oh, I remember how you used to shine back then,” it rings like the song Barrett’s band members eventually wrote for him. At this stage, however, it has more of a folk feeling, as if reimagined from an English perspective — a bit like the fare Elvis Costello dabbled in on albums like 1986’s “King of America.” 

The band settles further into this vaguely Southern aesthetic on “Now That I’ve Found You,” growing more freely fanciful with their spontaneous guitar detailing than anything in Oasis’ catalogue. Of course, there’s nothing less original than comparing Oasis to the Beatles, but just listen to the verse of this song, and you’ll be transported, in a flash, to sometime between moptops and “Rubber Soul.” Then, when the chorus hits — no one saw this coming — ’80s-styled power pop fare strikes, out of the blue, with a few blues licks at just the right time, and then vocal harmonies piled on, one after another, with falsetto “hoo-hoo-hoo” incidentals. This is the catchiest thing is the world, and it’s difficult to imagine Noel ever doing anything of the sort. 

Gallagher delves deeper into these flamboyant, throwback indulgences on “Halo,” in this case a piano-heavy, campy bluesy ditty. The prominent piano is just too outlandish to be taken very seriously, but then again, isn’t everything Gallagher does is? Some of Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”-era stuff comes to mind. The refrain at the end appears lifted from the Yardbirds’ 1966 hit “For Your Love” The title track sounds stadium-ready from the onset, with resounding drums, chugging guitars, and Gallagher hollering in reverb, as if singing from stage to hordes of fans, with the crowd’s collective energy manifest in his voice and manner. The chorus comes quicker than anticipated, in one of those little songwriting tricks that make all the difference, and Gallagher’s falsetto delivery is priceless. You can hear echoes of perhaps “Helter Skelter” or even “I Am the Walrus,” although any similarities to the latter would be much more flattering than Oasis’ early cover of that song. 

“Be Still” is a straight-up rock ‘n’ roll banger — there’s a killer riff, dramatic pause, a capella line, and the type of stomp that evokes bar bands of the best variety. There’s a chorus with vaguely folky harmonies, readymade for spirited singalongs, short and snappy, but with room for guitar solo indulgences. “Alright Now” is a major surprise, as Gallagher is considerably mellowed out, having ostensibly put on his indoor voice. He’s so well known for his outlandish, slurred, nasal singing style that it’s easy to forget how versatile he actually is within those parameters. There’s an extremely ‘70s guitar solo, along with nods to the Kinks, although that’s already expected. The lush harmonies and string arrangements approach almost Queen-level ostentation on this one. “Meadow” begins in a murky organ haze, and finds Gallagher again exploring different ends of his vocal range, recalling Bowie at moments. There are choirs, and select bits are given the whole “Pet Sounds” treatment, along with unhinged guitar showmanship that sounds strangely like both Pink Floyd and the Allman Brothers, and eventually devolves into a designedly discordant mess.

“The River” sounds like it could be an Oasis song, with a blues-derived riff, a few levels removed, and obscured by fuzz, with Gallagher bellowing over the racket, but beefed-up, and taking more liberties with his whimsical embellishments, like echoing exclamations, a shamelessly flashy solo, and some “Aah-aah” drivelry. There’s a jamboree feel to it all, but with bleeding, overdriven guitars, and the way that Gallagher curls his words in his trademark way upon the line “By the river” is just classic. Finally, “Gone” begins with rustic, stripped-down guitars, tremolo chords, and a Spaghetti Western phrase. Strings seep in, and the chorus arrives layered and dense. There’s a spoken word section, a true rarity for Gallagher, and he puts on a hardly recognizable voice. IIn the chorus line, he sings “yeah, yeah” to the same tune as in “You Know What I Mean” from 1997’s “Be Here Now.”

Lyrically, the material is about what you’d expect from the more reckless Gallagher brother. “Shockwave” is basically a call for a fight, with lines like “Brace yourself world, it’s about to blow your mind,” and charges of “You’re a snake / You’re a weasel.” One can’t help but wonder if this is directed toward Noel, especially in light of other songs. On “One of Us,” Gallagher sings, “You said we’d live forever.” He could be addressing the subject of Oasis’ 1994 hit “Live Forever,” but there are lines like “It’s a shame you thought you’d changed, but you were always one of us,” which sound a lot like Liam’s tirades about Noel’s being a posh sellout. There’s a bit of nostalgia in songs like “Once,” although Gallagher reminds himself, “you only get to do it once.”

There are softer bits, like “Now That I’ve Found You,” a straightforward head-over-heels love song. “Halo” might be the most “bro” love song ever, with lines like “When I get too hot, she’s my lager nice and cold.” The title track is a reminder that Liam is still Liam, with its opening lines, “Why me, why not / This time I’m coming ready or not.” Things haven’t changed much since 1994’s “Supersonic,” in which he declared, “I need to be myself / I can’t be no one else.” “Alright Now” is an upright, motivational song, while “Meadow,” “The River,” and “Gone” all explore themes of loneliness, indefinite waiting, and the passage of time. Gallagher has long receded from the socialite milieu, and been known to live as something of an oddball recluse.  And even though he prides himself on his lack of pretension, there are always profound and poetic bits scattered among the lyrics. 

It’s quite safe to say there isn’t a single truly new sound on the record, merely styles and sensibilities excavated from previous eras. This is hardly an issue though, as the sounds chosen are of the type that ought to be revived. More importantly, they’ve been assembled into quality songs. Finally, Liam Gallagher’s voice and musical instincts are alone enough to make the music original. Gallagher is not a subtle guy, and we can credit him for most of the edge that ever made its way into Oasis. Left alone, without Noel to chaperone, he can truly go haywire, and he set out to record “Why Me? Why Not?” with the precise objective of outdoing his last solo effort. It’s safe to say that the goal was accomplished.

“Why Me? Why Not?” is available Sept. 20 on Apple Music.