The return of Liam Gallagher gathered pace with a sensational show at Glastonbury. NME described it as “a swaggering, emotional moment”, “worth the hype” and “one of Glastonbury’s finest moments” before concluding “never underestimate the man, he was made for moments like this.” Between Glastonbury, his recent sold-out underplay tour and an emotional performance at One Love Manchester, Liam Gallagher has demonstrated that he’s back to his very best.
Now Liam continues to build anticipation for the October 6th release of his debut solo album ‘As You Were’ by sharing the new lyric video for his latest track ‘Chinatown’.
‘Chinatown’ was produced and written by Andrew Wyatt, the frontman of the band Miike Snow, whose previous credits include collaborations with the likes of Florence + The Machine. In addition to his work on ‘Chinatown’, Wyatt also co-wrote four other tracks on ‘As You Were’ in the shape of ‘Wall Of Glass’, ‘Paper Crown’, ‘Come Back To Me’ and ‘Doesn’t Have To Be That Way’.
After Liam ignited the album’s writing process with the heavy duty soul-rock of ‘Bold’, ‘As You Were’ was recorded in two locations. Greg Kurstin performed all of the instruments on the four songs that he produced (‘Wall Of Glass’, ‘Paper Crown’, ‘Come Back To Me’ and the psychedelic whoosh of ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way’), while Dan Grech-Marguerat produced the remainder of the album at Snap! Studios in London.
“I didn’t want to be reinventing anything or going off on a space jazz odyssey,” says Liam. “It’s the Lennon ‘Cold Turkey’ vibe, The Stones, the classics. But done my way, now.”
One of the most striking aspects of ‘As You Were’ is that all the songs have a purpose. There’s no flab, nothing to cut. They all feel directed at something or someone, setting the record straight or getting his side of the story over, be that the swinging, Bo Diddley-like ‘Greedy Soul’, which incinerates someone who’s the “ungrateful dead” or the mega-ballad ‘For What It’s Worth’ which serves up the album’s biggest chorus.
The ‘As You Were’ cover features an iconic new portrait of Liam which was taken by the influential photographer, fashion designer and creative director Hedi Slimane.
‘As You Were’ is now available to pre-order from https://l-gx.com/lg_asyouwere with ‘Wall Of Glass’ and ‘Chinatown’ provided as an instant download. It will be released on digital (standard and deluxe), CD (standard and deluxe) and vinyl (standard 12” and limited edition coloured 12” formats).
A special boxset is also available from https://wbr.ec/lg-store-dlxboxset. It compiles a coloured 12” vinyl of the album, an exclusive 7” format of ‘For What It’s Worth’, a print designed by Klaus Voorman (the artist behind The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ album cover) and additional collectors’ items.