Life Listens: New music from Noel Gallagher, Sezairi, Wu Bai and China Blue, Lisa and Lim Young-woong

SINGAPORE – In this weekly column, The Straits Times curates the most buzz-worthy music you need to know about now.

Ace Album: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Council Skies

British rock band Oasis split up 14 years ago and fans are still calling for their reunion. That is not likely to happen unless the Gallagher brothers Noel and Liam bury the hatchet.

Until then, music fans will just have to make do with solo albums from the pair.

Elder brother Noel is the latest to come up with new music with Council Skies, his fourth album under the moniker Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

His barbed-wired personal views might be immensely quotable – he recently made headlines for derogatory remarks against The 1975 singer Matty Healy, for example – but his songwriting is still sublime.

Council Skies has all the ingredients that made many Oasis songs memorable, such as an abundance of hooks, bittersweet melodies and symphonic embellishments.

While Think Of A Number and Dead To The World are gracefully melancholic, We’re Gonna Get There In The End, written during the Covid-19 lockdown, is a throwback to buoyant 1990s Britpop.

But there are also moments when he treads unfamiliar ground, such as on Pretty Boy, a track which features former The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Unlike the rest of the album’s organic vibe, the tune is driven by the clinical beat of drum machines, which adds an interesting layer to Noel’s sound. – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Singapore Scene: Sezairi – Memory

Home-grown singer-songwriter Sezairi’s new single will not be officially released until Friday, but it is already making waves among his fans.

He played it live for the first time at the Java Jazz Festival 2023 in Indonesia in early June, and the audience sang along to the chorus even though the tune was new.

The pop-R&B track is definitely catchy, with an earworm of a chorus and an irresistible bass line.

Like many of his signature songs, the lyrics revolve around romance and relationships, especially the kind that leave lasting impressions.

“Hearing the Java Jazz crowd sing the chorus of Memory in unison sent a chill down my spine,” Sezairi says in a statement. “I knew at that point that this song was going to connect with people on another level.”

It is co-written with Petra Sihombing, the Indonesian artist and producer best known for hits such as Mine (2014) and Pilih Saja Aku (Just Choose Me, 2012). – Eddino Abdul Hadi

Chart Champ: Lim Young-woong – Grain Of Sand

In a sea of boy bands and girl groups, South Korean singer Lim Young-woong has emerged as the rare soloist who can beat K-pop idols on the charts.

The 32-year-old made his debut in 2016, but broke into the mainstream only after winning the talent competition Mr. Trot (2020) out of a field of 17,000 applicants.

Though he is known for his trot songs – a genre of music that was huge in South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s and is seeing a resurgence in recent years – Lim’s latest number Grain Of Sand is a heartfelt and poignantly delivered ballad with a comforting melody.

His strong and resonant vocals elevate the pared-down production of the song with gravitas.

It beat hit songs from girl groups like IVE and (G)I-dle to land at the top of South Korea’s Circle Chart’s weekly digital song ranking. It also won Lim his first music show trophy on Music Core, amid fierce competition from popular boy band Stray Kids.

South Korea’s weekly music shows will award first placings to various songs, based on criteria like sales and music video views. – Jan Lee

Stream This Song: Lisa – Realize

Japanese pop singer Lisa (not to be confused with the Blackpink member of the same name) may be known as the queen of anime songs, having sung opening themes for blockbuster series like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba (2019 to present).

Now, she is linked to yet another animated work.

Realize is the Japanese theme song for the recent hit movie Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, which is showing in Singapore cinemas.

While American comic books and superhero flicks are stylistically different from Japanese manga and anime, the pop-rock number – which has the characteristically upbeat melody of many anime songs – is a surprisingly great fit for Spider-Man.

The propulsive, dramatic chorus and Lisa’s fearless performance capture the chaotic, colourful and exciting energy of the movie perfectly. – Jan Lee

Must-see MV: Wu Bai and China Blue – How Song

Whoever said you cannot teach an old dog new tricks has not seen the music video of How Song, by Taiwanese rock legend Wu Bai and his band China Blue.

The new number from their latest album Pure White Start (2023) ponders the meaning of ambition and progress in one’s life, and its MV cleverly conveys this in a visual way.

It is set against a maze of staircases that seem to ascend and descend continuously, creating a disorienting effect that squares with lyrics such as: “We are almost at the exit, yet there is another entrance.”

Dancers show up donning giant silver headpieces, depicting a bizarre and dehumanised world of constant striving, in which pushing ahead is ultimately a pointless endeavour. Their exaggerated dance moves also inject frivolity and fun.

All in all, this is a cohesive work which effectively communicates Wu Bai’s easy-going, happy-go-lucky approach to life. – Benson Ang