Noel embraces his pop side with ‘Holy Mountain’

Perez Jackson

Noel and his ‘High Flying Birds’ return with Holy Mountain, the first single off the new album Who Built the Moon? Comparisons with his brother Liam’s recent output on ‘As You Were’ are difficult to escape seeing as barely a day goes by without the brothers’ bitter feud being reignited by the British music press. Perhaps more importantly, however, is that the two Gallaghers will also be slugging it out for chart dominance when Who Built the Moon is released next month. At the time of writing Liam’s As You Were currently occupies the top position on the UK album charts, though it will be very interesting to see if Noel can outsell Liam.

Holy Mountain is an undeniably catchy song, with a foot-stomping beat and a great horn-led hook. The song sounds like a cross between Phil Spector and Ricky Martin with the chorus melody bearing a striking similarity to Martin’s early 2000s smash hit She Bangs. Fans hoping for yet another guitar heavy track from a Gallagher brother are likely to be disappointed. That being said, I personally prefer Holy Mountain to any of Liam’s singles from As You Were which all seem to be retreading that same old swaggery ‘Lad Rock’ sound which Oasis originally pioneered over 20 years ago, whereas Holy Mountain represents a fairly sharp departure into a bold new pop territory for Noel.

One criticism of ‘Holy Mountain’ I do have, however, is the production. For such a catchy song it doesn’t exactly spring out at you as it should. Instead, the song is very heavily compressed and it sounds like all instruments’ volumes have been maxed out meaning there is a lack of any real song dynamics. This does also mean that the instruments on the track do sort of blend together at times making it difficult to distinguish one from the other, the bass, for example, is practically inaudible on some occasions as it ends up so buried in the mix. That said, I imagine that the song would truly shine in a live setting.

Although at times Holy Mountain’s lyrics can seem a bit cringy and repetitive, Noel’s positivity is somewhat refreshing compared to Liam’s constant brooding bitterness. Where Liam seems to be singing about getting even and taking revenge on As You Were’s lead single Wall of Glass, Noel just wants you to have fun and “Dance Dance Dance.” Never has it been more clear that Noel has truly moved on from Oasis, whereas Liam seems to be determined to hold onto a grudge which really should have ended a long time ago.

Nevertheless, Holy Mountain is a solid first single and leaves me excited to hear the rest of Who Built the Moon. Will it be at the top of many ‘Track of the year’ lists? Probably not, though Holy Mountain is a strong first step for Noel’s first foray into a more ‘pop’ oriented sound.