Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Noel Gallagher channels the melodic instincts of the Beatles and the thunderous drive of the Who into expansive, stadium-filling anthems through his post-Oasis outfit Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Their self-titled 2011 debut placed the emphasis squarely on the meticulous songcraft at the heart of his writing, while the harder-hitting Chasing Yesterday followed in 2015 and the kaleidoscopic Who Built the Moon? arrived two years later; each of these releases claimed the top spot on the British charts. Electronic forays across the band's EPs, notably 2020's Blue Moon Rising, demonstrated that Gallagher continued to test the outer limits of British rock, whereas the 2023 album Council Skies drew fresh attention to his dependable, finely honed compositional skills.

As Oasis's lead guitarist, primary songwriter, and occasional frontman, Gallagher stood at the center of the early-1990s Brit-pop explosion. After that group's dissolution he launched Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, a vehicle that, like its predecessor, fused Beatles-derived tunefulness with the Who's muscular force to generate large-scale rock songs throughout the ensuing decade.

The project coalesced in 2010 around Gallagher, ex-Oasis keyboardist Mike Rowe, Lemon Trees drummer Jeremy Stacey, and percussionist Lenny Castro. Their first single, "If I Had a Gun," surfaced in August 2011, and the full-length debut appeared the following October. It ascended to number one in the U.K., registered strongly worldwide, and ultimately surpassed 2.5 million copies sold.

The 2014 single "In the Heat of the Moment" paved the way for the self-produced follow-up Chasing Yesterday, issued in 2015 and boasting a cameo from guitarist Johnny Marr. A lengthy promotional trek spanning more than two years and 28 countries ensued. Later that autumn the remix collection Where the City Meets the Sky: Chasing Yesterday: The Remixes surfaced, featuring reinterpretations by Andrew Weatherall and Massive Attack's 3D. Gallagher then joined forces with producer David Holmes for the 2017 album Who Built the Moon?, an exercise in raucous neo-psychedelia that entered the U.K. chart at number one and marked the tenth consecutive Gallagher-led album to achieve that feat.

Throughout 2019 the High Flying Birds joined Smashing Pumpkins for U.S. dates, supported U2 across Australia, and topped festival bills of their own. They also issued a run of EPs extending the sonic palette of Who Built the Moon? through electronic textures and dancefloor rhythms while retaining more conventional material. Black Star Dancing landed in June, This Is the Place followed in September, and Blue Moon Rising—with its single "Wandering Star"—appeared in March 2020. The tenth anniversary of the project was marked by the 2021 retrospective Back the Way We Came, Vol. 1: 2011-2021.

Activity resumed in late 2022 with the release of "Pretty Boy," the lead single from the fourth album Council Skies. Co-produced by Paul Stacey, the engineer on the band's debut, the record favored a restrained atmosphere achieved through its polished sonics and precisely shaped compositions.