Noel Gallagher really is flying high.

Beady Eye might have got to it first, but good things really do come to those who wait. Right from 30 seconds into the opening track of Noel Gallagher’s high flying birds

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, ‘Everybody’s on the run’, I was hooked by the raw anthemic quality that Oasis always got oh so right.

As his first solo album, I must say I find it fairly safe and standard, guaranteed to appeal to Noel’s fans, but he does what he does best and creates music that attaches itself to you, dragging your emotions with it at every point of the way. As is often with albums, some of the strongest tracks are the singles (‘The death of you and me’ and ‘AKA, what a life!’ get better every time you hear them) but the rest of the album is in no way a collection of filler tracks.  ‘Dream on’ and “AKA… Broken arrow”certainly reming me of ‘The importance of being idle’ and ‘wonderwall’, but Noel isn’t “Here’s four chords, go make a band”, and sometimes you should start by sticking to what you know. And having witnessed an (admittedly limited) radio airtime split of Noel and Liam, I’m witnessing Noel making waves and Liam managing large ripples at best. (I guess here is a good time to mention that I do like Liam, I just prefer Noel).

I would say 7 tracks out of 10 are incredibly listenable, painfully catchy and guaranteed to haunt your mind for days, but every track contains an element of genius unique to Noel. My personal favourite album, track, ‘(Stranded on) the wrong beach’ has that strong steady beat of an angry brit pop anthem, the sort of thing to shake a stadium of fans to the core.

Is it a safe choice? Yes. Do I love it? Absolutely. It might lack the outrageous influence of Liam, but if Noel treads on his toes, even just a little, and takes a risk, I would put money on him being just as good, if not bigger than, Oasis.