Albums to watch

Who Built The Moon?

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Who Built The Moon?

Third solo album from the former Oasis mainman produced by Irish electronic musician David Holmes

ADM rating[?]

6.9

Label
Sour Mash
UK Release date
24/11/2017
US Release date
24/11/2017
  1. 9.0 |   All Music

    Noel knows how to construct a sturdy song and Holmes knows how to dress them up in flashy clothes, and the combination results in Gallagher's best album since splitting up Oasis
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  2. 8.4 |   Paste Magazine

    This is Noel’s strongest work post-Oasis
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  3. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    Noel Gallagher's third solo release after Oasis is a marked shift from previous outings, delivering a desire for experimentation that demonstrates his continued relevance as musician, songwriter, and performer
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  4. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    An eclectic mix of psychedelia, electronica, dance beats and space jazz as well as rock which moves along the scale from The Beatles towards erstwhile collaborators The Chemical Brothers
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  5. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    An album that sees Gallagher take more risks over the course of its 11 tracks than he has over the previous 11 years
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  6. 8.0 |   NME

    Noel’s best album since ‘…Morning Glory’
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  7. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    Brightness is certainly the first thing that strikes you about Who Built the Moon, an album that cloaks Gallagher’s hardy guitar-pop in glowing Smithsian riffs, tin whistle samples from novelty 60s tunes and a heady fug of riotous glam rock
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  8. 8.0 |   Q

    His best record in more than a decade. Print edition only

  9. 8.0 |   American Songwriter

    It’s overwhelming proof, if anyone needed it, that Noel Gallagher’s best days aren’t behind him. If Who Built the Moon is any indication, the high flying British icon may just be getting started
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  10. 8.0 |   The Independent

    By far his best post-Oasis work, an album which doesn’t try to challenge that heritage, but strikes out to explore new territory
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  11. 8.0 |   Clash

    These songs offer up an enveloping array of melody and an endearingly gleeful playfulness that is hard to resist
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  12. 7.6 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    Gallagher can still pump out timeless melodies like they're barbed comments to an interviewer, and his confidence in delivering both has only become stronger with time and experience
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  13. 7.5 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    It’ll doubtless polarise his core fanbase, but amongst those who recognised his capacity for following an exploratory bent as far back as “Setting Sun” in 1996, the response will be a pithy one - “about time”
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  14. 7.5 |   Gig Soup

    Easily the most ambitious album Gallagher has released since Oasis’ heyday, ‘Who Built the Moon?’ is a surprise late-career reinvention from one of British music’s most distinctive figures
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  15. 7.1 |   Pitchfork

    The most ambitious of his solo releases, internalizing the heyday of late ’90s Britpop while sounding both urgent and absurd to mostly great effect
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  16. 7.0 |   Rolling Stone

    It wouldn't be Noel without a little grumpy snark. But mixed with the musical highs, that's part of his charm
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  17. 7.0 |   God Is In The TV

    A bouncy, joyous, loved-up record containing some of Gallagher’s freshest, most enjoyable music in decades
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  18. 7.0 |   Uncut

    This album will not fry your brain though that's not to say that a substantial change has not been attempted. Print edition only

  19. 6.0 |   Mojo

    Though some things never change, the Serge Gainsbourg-like instrumental Interlude (Wednesday Part 1) and electro-pop winners It's A Beautiful World and She Taught Me How To Fly are invigorating departures. Print edition only

  20. 6.0 |   State

    His desire to abandon the tight, beautifully written songs he’s known for in order to push musical boundaries is understandable but Who Built the Moon? gets lost somewhere in the gap he’s trying to bridge
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  21. 6.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    This is not usual. This is not the middle-of-the-road rock n’ roll we’ve come to expect and, quietly, accept from Noey-Gs
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  22. 6.0 |   The Arts Desk

    The record is evidence that Gallagher really does possess influences beyond Lennon and McCartney
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  23. 6.0 |   The Observer

    His third solo album is his most expansive yet, with an uncharacteristic energy, most notably on the stomping glam rock of Holy Mountain
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  24. 6.0 |   Spectrum Culture

    Who Built the Moon? deserves to be commended for its fearlessness
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  25. 5.8 |   Consequence Of Sound

    The elder Gallagher's latest record sacrifices its identity in hopes of discovering a new one
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  26. 5.0 |   The Music

    It's his boldest work yet. Just not his best
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  27. 4.0 |   The FT

    Gallagher’s gift for crafting meaty, emotive melodies is stifled by the beat-driven approach
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  28. 2.0 |   The Irish Times

    It’s the stale, musty sound of a glorified pub band going through the motions. Rock is dead; this is a pantomime
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