Singles

Beady Eye - Four Letter Word

Harry Milburn 14/01/2011

Rating: 4/5

Liam Gallagher's been under the influence of something or other for a long time now. These days, however, it's less about the class As, and a lot more about musicians contemporaneous to jukeboxes; as Beady Eye's first release 'Bring The Light' showed.

Having hoovered up a line or two of Jerry Lee Lewis for that piano pumping debut, then, Gallagher the younger and his post-Oasis outfit return to get their fix of John Lennon. Here, in a mirroring of 'How Do You Sleep'- that vicious post-Beatles attack on John's ex-bessie Macca; Beady Eye's 'Four Letter Word' sees Liam launch a post-Oasis musical tirade on his brother Noel. And thinly veiled it's not.

Because whilst the 'four letter word' here might be any number of things (T.O.F.U?, D.I.E.T?, S.O.Y.A?)- it certainly seems most likely to be his brother's name; especially when you consider the line 'nothing ever lasts forever', in relation to the Noel-penned 'you and I are gonna live forever' lyric from the siblings' less discordant early days. So when Liam's snarling vocals ask ' …a four letter word, will you guess my meaning?', the answer must come back as: 'yes, we probably will.'

Nevertheless, it's an immediate and catchy track; Oasisish, yes- though not lazily so; whilst Gem's guitar solo proves Noel won't be missed as a guitarist at least. Lyrically, its nowhere near as cringe-worthy as people might have feared from a man who once wrote the couplet 'live for your toys, even though they make noise/ have you ever played with plasticine or even tried a trampoline?'

Of course, it's the existence of lyrics like that that mean Beady Eye's upcoming album 'Different Gear, Still Speeding' is the sort of release many can't wait to pan. And when Liam was quoted as saying at the tail-end of last year that their debut is going to be as good as 'Definitely Maybe', and that Beady Eye are 'gonna be f**king [fooking?] massive'; knifes weren't so much being sharpened as being positively grinded and filed until they were sharper than serpent's teeth. But if this release is anything to go by, those critics will be left disappointed; and Liam's infamously empty boasts might actually not be so empty after all this time.