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(Warner Music)The dextrous, fluid guitar over Lennon-esque keening is almost exactly what you’d expect – whether you view it as genius or limited will depend on the length of your parkaLiam Gallagher and John Squire have a history that dates back to 1988, when a 16-year-old Gallagher saw the Stone Roses play Manchester’s International 2 Club in the company of his older brother Noel, an experience the former described as “life-changing”, and ultimately inspired him to join a local band, the Rain, who ultimately became Oasis. Six years later, the members of the Stone Roses broke off from the troubled recording sessions for their second album to gather around the studio’s TV and watch Oasis’s debut appearance on Top of the Pops: a music fan of a certain bent, given to romanticising, might view that as a symbolic moment, a passing of the gobby Mancunian alt-rock baton, although Squire apparently “didn’t think the tune” – Shakermaker – “was that great”. Two years later, Squire appeared onstage with Oasis at Knebworth: the latter were now the biggest band in Britain – 2.6m people applied for tickets – but, given the extent of the Stone Roses’ influence on them, Squire’s guest slot still carried a hint of benediction.So, if you view Liam Gallagher’s latter day solo career as an extended exercise in rubbing his estranged older brother’s nose in it, then Squire’s reprise of his guest appearance at Gallagher’s own 2022 Knebworth show represents something of a trump card – see, he thinks I represent the spirit of Oasis – and the announcement of a collaborative album even more so. Indeed, listening to the first fruits of their joint endeavour, Just Another Rainbow, it’s tempting to say it’s more interesting as a triumphant up-yours-Noel gesture than a song. Certainly, it sounds almost exactly like you would expect a collaboration between the pair to sound. Squire’s guitar playing, dextrous and fluid as ever, sits somewhere between the Stone Roses’ debut album – the chiming riff with which it opens – and the heavier, more expansive sound of 1994’s Second Coming (the extended solo that tips the track over the five-minute mark). Gallagher does his patent Lennon-esque keening over the top – “no pot of gooooooooooold waiting here for meeeeeee”. The rhythm is the Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows by way of the Roses’ baggy shuffle. And that’s pretty much that. Continue reading...