Liam Gallagher’s issue with U2: ‘They haven’t written any masterpieces’
There tends to be a certain hierarchy regarding how the public treats rock bands. Even though there are plenty of artists who can make people dance whenever they get up onstage, certain personalities relate to their fans on a much deeper level, to the point where every major release feels like a magical event once it starts. Although Liam Gallagher has no problem calling nearly every one of his releases nothing short of biblical, he thought that U2 didn’t have that much of a back catalogue for all of the fans that they have.
Then again, listening to the Britpop legends and the Irish rockers is like looking at two completely different approaches to music. U2 was inspired by the biggest names in punk, just like Liam was, but whereas they took that aggression and channelled it into spiritual music, Liam did exactly what it said on the tin and dominated the entire music world.
Whether Noel was writing the tunes for him or he was playing his own material, there wasn’t one line that made it onto a studio record that Liam wasn’t 100% confident in singing. There had been other harsh rock singers before him, like Kurt Cobain, but if his voice was a cry of pain, Liam’s was the kind of voice that burst with confidence and pushed every in the crowd to have that same confidence as well.
That’s not to say that Bono’s style was any less good; it was just different. Liam had that kind of snide vocal style that kept everyone hanging on his every word, but Bono got a lot of his showmanship just from the raw power he put into his voice. He often looked like a self-righteous windbag doing it half the time, but hearing songs off The Joshua Tree in isolation, it did seem like he could change the world.
When the group adopted new styles for Achtung Baby, though, it was the polar opposite of what Oasis was all about. These were kids that dressed the same way onstage as they would if they were on the street, and once the U2 frontman started creating personas like ‘The Fly’, that probably wasn’t going to go over well with Liam.
Even when striking out on his own in the 2010s, Liam singled out U2 when talking about his track ‘You Better Run’, saying, “I look at the likes of U2… Even years ago, they were going, ‘We’re coming back to claim f—in’ rock’n’roll’ and all that nonsense. For me, they haven’t wrote any masterpieces – for a band that f—in’ big, with all the f—in’ stuff they’ve got at their disposal, they should be writing masterpieces.”
Then again, it was probably a lot easier to punch down on U2 in the 2010s than it was in the 1990s. Oasis was on the verge of making classics like What’s the Story Morning Glory, but as Liam has continued to skyrocket, the Irish legends’ recent Songs of… series of albums can be more than a little bit self-righteous to anyone with a weak stomach or functional eyeballs, especially when they pulled a Roger Waters and reinterpreted their songs on Songs of Surrender.
Whereas artists like U2 look at the bigger picture when they make music, Liam is more about cutting to the chase. Life’s too short to try to preserve one’s legacy, so it makes more sense to address problems in the here and now than preaching to the public about how they should live their lives whenever they pay for a ticket.
