Review: Oasis’ Liam Gallagher/Stone Roses’ John Squire, Manchester Rock Royalty, Team Up For New Song “Just Another Rainbow,” & A New Album

Fridays are when new music, albums and single songs, get released. It used to be Tuesdays – which was admittedly strange (it was done to “game” the weekly charts) – but somewhere along the line the music industry switched it to Fridays which just works better for me personally. If I’m going to sip a tumbler of bourbon and listen to brand new music, it’s better that it’s not on a “school night.” I typically do a pretty good job of keeping my ear to the ground and I usually know when a band has something new coming. Such is my rock n roll obsession. Despite that, artists do continually sneak up on me and drop a song or an album that was completely unexpected. And, like in the old days when I often discovered an artist had a new song by seeing their video on MTV, I often discover a new tune by surprise via video on YouTube. Typically on the weekend the Rock Chick and I will do some musical spelunking on YouTube, and this Friday was no exception, when lo and behold, we stumbled across a video from Liam Gallagher – no stranger to B&V – and John Squire, erstwhile guitarist from the Stone Roses. And oh, what an astonishingly good song it is(!), “Just Another Rainbow.”

Liam Gallagher is a singer that likely needs no introduction. Half of the dynamic sibling duo behind Oasis, Liam went on to solo stardom after the band’s inevitable breakup (after a brief stint with Beady Eye). We really liked his first two solo LPs, As You Were (2017) and Why Me, Why Not? (2019). Certainly any Oasis fan would have loved those albums and the Rock Chick is all in on Oasis… Although admittedly, we were disappointed by his last solo outing, 2022’s C’mon You Know, despite it’s having a great lead single in the Dave Grohl co-written, “Everything’s Electric.” I still love that song although the rest of the album is a bit of a “sound collage”… I’ll leave it at that.

When I first read the name John Squire, it through me for a bit of a loop, I couldn’t place him. Then I realized he was the guitar player in seminal Britpop rock band the Stone Roses. The Stone Roses only hung on for two albums but they were a huge influence in Manchester (or was it Madchester?) and specifically on Oasis and the Verve who followed them a few years later. Liam says the Stone Roses were the first band he saw live and that’s always huge. Their self-titled first album, is an absolute classic. And while I don’t have it on vinyl, I do own the album and am a fan but then I love debut albums.

After playing with Liam’s band at a festival last year, Squire sent a few tracks he’d written to Liam to see if he wanted to collaborate. Liam was absolutely game. Manchester Rock Royalty unite! The Stone Roses already have a song that gets played at Manchester United games, god knows how they’ll respond to this. After working on the first three tracks Squire sent over, Liam realized they were on to something and they went in a recorded a whole album worth of material. If “Just Another Rainbow” is any indication, I think we’re in for some great rock n roll.

“Just Another Rainbow,” to these ears, is really a great combination of the sound of Oasis (or Liam) and the Stone Roses. I can hear elements of both Liam and Squire in the track. It is trippy, psychedelic music at it’s best. I love what Squire does on this song. This track wouldn’t have been out of place on the radio next to “Strawberry Fields.” “Just another rainbow dripping on my tree…” indeed. The thing that boggles my mind is the second half of the song is dominated by a guitar solo. You just don’t hear that anymore. I turned to the Rock Chick and said, “The balls on these guys to put out a song with a long guitar solo in this era of synths?!?” Squire just tortures the guitar for most of the back end of the song and I absolutely love it! Where has this guy been hiding? Rounding out the band on this track are producer Greg Kurstin on bass and session cat Joey Waronker mans the drums (his dad Lenny was a big producer back in the day). It’s stripped down and simple yet huge at the same time… Squire’s guitar blows the track up to 11.

Here is the video:

Even the video is trippy! After the long guitar solo – again completely unexpected in 2024 – Liam comes in for a few more runs through the chorus. The song is five and a half minutes long and when it was over I couldn’t wait to start it over. To paraphrase Mel Brooks in History Of The World, Part 1, “I just heard it and I want to hear it again.” John Squire may just be the songwriting foil that Liam has been looking for. I have no idea when the LP comes out, but it’s now on my “greatly anticipated” list!

Turn this one up loud!

There were several great songs that dropped on Friday and believe me, we’ll get to all of them eventually… I’m still absorbing this astonishingly great song!

Cheers!