Give this man a hand. Though I can not speak on BDI as a live act because I missed them when they came to Chicago, I can say that the Strokes are pretty close to being amazing live, if they're not now.

To say the Strokes are dead is not having all the facts. The Strokes are definitely a viable entity, much more viable than BDI imo.

Just for argument sake Even if Julian voice's getting worse and worse with time(yeah, even if im a fan you can see that he's no longer the guy who could shout 'take it or leave it' without almost no effort).

Just for argument sake

Noel did have a lot of advantages, but I also think that BDI had a few advantages of their own that they really didn't tale enough advantage of.

They were first of out the gate and the first to get the media attention. In the begining they were handed an opportunity to come out first, to grab all the headlines, and to impress. But "okay" promotion and terrible single release strategies hurt them significantly imo. They were in a moment which they would probably never get again (the same that Noel would get). And that moment was maximum press exposure, or the great exposure that they could hope to get. Would they have sold as much as Noel has sold? No. But that doesn't mean that it couldn't have been better. They very much had the spotlight, yet they couldn't do much with it.

Now I know that some will say that people had already made their minds up about Beady Eye, and that they were never going to truly hit a homerun with their first release, and that the press were against them. Yet, the fact remains that they were given a platform to promote the hell out of their album and their promotion was lacking imo. This was compounded by the bad decisions to stagger the release dates of their singles. Singles are part of promotion. As much as some on here hate to talk about single sales and position, in the end, a single with long endurance or a good placing greatly helps your album and it gives you good press. The Roller should have been a Top 20 hit. Would that chart postion alone have helped increase album sales, maybe not. But BDI could have had a chance to take the good press from a good chart position and ran with it and built some momentum.

Noel on the other hand did just about everything perfectly or about as well as one could od when it came to promotion (except with the way he fouled up the IIHAG release). For the most part TDOYAM was perfect. He streamed lined the release dates and used Youtube to great effect. He then had AKA...WAL and was lucky enough to have Vaxhaull include it in their commercial and actually employed the strategy of making two pushes with the single. Which is the only way you can do a staggered release. He used the commerical to push the digital release, and then used live appearances to push the physical release.

He also used his down time in the run up to the press conference to do magazine and radio interviews which he planned to slowly release over the course of the proceeding months which basically allowed for him to be in two places at once and maximize his ability to promote. He then amazingly kept his album under wraps long enough for it not to leak in advance. And then he was able leak the album on his own terms. And lastly he didn't come out spouting off that he would be brilliant live and this album would be the best since WTSMG or DM. Instead, he played it cool and close to the vest. Which made it easier for him to surpass expectations. He had a plan and he was honest with himself and with everyone as to what kind of artist he was. He made sure that expectations would not be too high (even though for him they still were pretty high, at least for the album). He's been criticized on here a bit for talkng down expectations. But I think he did the right thing and the smart thing.

Noel did a lot of things as well as one could do. He had luck along the way. You don't do what he's done in the UK without a bit of luck. But he has very muched harnessed and taken advantage of the spotlight which was afforded him. BDI not so much. As I alluded to before. I don't think BDI could have sold more than Noel in the UK. I think that would be asking far too much, but I do think they could have and would have done better had it not been for some gaffs with single releases and if they had had some better promo work.

A bad album will not kill Beady Eye. It may kill them from any hope of becoming a band which isn't completely dependent on the Oasis fanbase, but it will not keep them from continuing on, releasing music, going out and having fun live, and doing their thing. Which in the end, they should be and will be fine with. And I think that's good news for everyone/anyone who wants to see this band continue on, grow, and develop. Which I certainly hope they do.