Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

After two minutes and thirty seconds of Chasing Yesterday's opening track Riverman, a saxophone appears, with a sound right from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. While not hanging on in quiet desperation, like the middle aged reflections of that prog-rock classic, Noel Gallagher is though displaying a maturity and sensitivity that would not have easily been predicted two decades ago as he and his feisty brother stormed into stadiums.

Much has been made of that aforementioned saxophone, hinting at musical experimentation on the back of his dance explorations on the scrapped project with The Amorphous Androgynous. But Riverman is not a giant leap to leftfield for Gallagher, and rather like the closing Ballad of the Mighty I, it sounds like something that could have come from sessions for his solo debut in 2011. But there is more saxophone and ultimately a little more of a diversion from the anthemic pop-rock he does so well.

The album's title hints at a reflective tone and that is captured perfectly on the gentle groove of The Dying of the Light, with its shadows of middle-age looming large; "woke up sleeping on a train that was bound for nowhere, the echoes that I could hear were all my own". Better still is the languid shuffle on the opening of The Right Stuff, with its gentle brass strokes and jazzy bass (a track saved from that aborted dance project). This, more than any other solo Noel Gallagher track is something that would never appear on an Oasis album.

There is more reflection in the titles on the second half of Chasing Yesterday. Those very words themselves appear in While The Song Remains The Same, while You Know We Can't Go Back has a surprising reassuring air and positive spirit despite its obvious contemplative feel.

What is most impressive about Gallagher's solo work is that having taken full control of the helm, you might expect the quality control to dip as he's allowed to indulge. But the opposite has happened. Chasing Yesterday is a tight ten tracks of hard-to-better pop-rock. As one of British rock's most talented and articulate stars, he is thriving in the freedom his brother unwillingly granted him. While that Oasis reunion is inevitable, the flourishing of the band's main talent is a joy to behold.