Noel Gallagher Completes Second High Flying Birds Album

Noel Gallagher announced the completion and release date of the brand new Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds album, Chasing Yesterday on Sour Mash Records.

The announcement was made during a live Q and A streamed on Facebook and hosted by BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt.

Chasing Yesterday will be released on March 2nd via Sour Mash Records, available on CD, Deluxe CD, vinyl and digitally.

The first single from the album, In The Heat Of The Moment, will be released on November 17th digitally and on limited edition 7 inch vinyl with B side entitled Do The Damage.

Chasing Yesterday marks a new chapter and sound for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. It’s the first album to be produced as well as written by Noel and features a much broader array of instrumentation than ever before; the result is a rich, expansive and multi-layered record, drawing from a range of disparate influences – from west coast rock to classic rock’n’roll and even some space jazz (!) – whilst still being very obviously a completely cohesive body of work.

On producing the album, Noel said:
It was a major pain in the arse. It’s not that I’ve ever had people telling me what to write or what direction to go in, but managing sessions from one end of the week to the other proved extremely difficult. I had all these people looking at me and saying: ‘right, what are we doing today?’ I was making the whole thing up as I went along.

The first single, In The Heat Of The Moment, is a hypnotic track inspired by a documentary in which an astronaut said that going into space for the first time feels like touching the face of God. “If that’s not an opening line for a song I don’t know what is” said Mr Gallagher.

The beautiful opening track, Riverman, is an expansive song with several guitar and saxophone solos. Noel said of the track:

We made a demo of Riverman and we knew it was amazing and then I was listening to [sax-laden one-hit wonder from 1974] Pinball by Brian Protheroe and thought: “Shall I actually get a saxophone player? And what if I get him to play not one but two solos?” I know I’m going to be accused of sax crimes. But fuck it. There’s nobody to tell me not to do it. And when you listen to that saxophone, please, don’t think about the guy from Spandau Ballet.

The record’s emotional closer, Ballad Of The Mighty I sees Johnny Marr join with Noel on guitar duties.

I tried to get him to play on the last album but it never happened. So when I put this track together and knew he would be perfect for it I called him and asked if I could send him the rough mix. He said: ‘No, I don’t want to hear it. I’m just going to react to it on the day.’ He didn’t even want any pointers. Well, that was brave of him. He just arrived with two guitars and a bag of effects pedals. And I have to say, he’s unbelievable. He’s way up there, on another level to the rest of us. The result is a burst of energy that helped make Mighty I one of the best songs I’ve ever written.

This album follows the huge success of the double platinum eponymous debut album that has sold 770,000 copies to date in the UK alone, and a live schedule that saw Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds visit 32 countries and play 143 shows over a 15 month touring period.

Track List:

Riverman
In The Heat Of The Moment
The Girl With X-Ray Eyes
Lock All The Doors
The Dying Of The Light
The Right Stuff
While The Song Remains The Same
The Mexican
You Know We Can’t Go Back
Ballad Of The Mighty I

Touring

Noel also announced his band Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will embark on a run of arena dates in March to coincide with the album release. Opening in Belfast at the Odyssey Arena on March 3rd and then playing Nottingham, Glasgow, and Manchester, culminating with a performance at London’s O2 Arena. The tour comes with support from special guests Black Rivers. Tickets will go on sale on October 17th at 9am. :