A brawny guitar riff, a swaggering harmonica and a thumping drum – the opening few bars of Why Me? Why Not set the scene for the rest of the record. Clearly, Liam Gallagher’s downtempo album will just have to wait. Following two refreshingly honest albums during his Beady Eye parenthesis (2009 – 2014), the crazier half of Oasis released his debut solo album As You Were in 2017. At the age of 45, the Mancunian set in stone his obsession with the sixties, avoiding any unnecessary frills to give his songs real panache. Two years later, he has amplified that raw, direct feeling with Why Me? Why Not, an album which is totally in tune with his usual sound. Channelling his inner Lennon on Once and McCartney on Halo, Liam Gallagher even tunes into the Oasis sound without Noel on Be Still. In no way does he reinvent the wheel, but instead he works on fine-tuning his songwriting skills. A great record. © Clotilde Maréchal/Qobuz