The interlude reminds me of when you’ve checked into a hotel and put the tv on as there’s a hotel branded tv with a welcome message.

I've had about 10 different listens over the last few days, through a couple of speakers and headphones, at home, on the train, and walking. Some songs have greatly grown, while others haven't hit the mark. My thoughts below:

Fort Knox: Noel really knows how to start up an album. I’ve tried not to listen to this song too much, so I didn’t wear it out before the album came out. The bass is still outstanding, especially the chromatic progression. The strings are fantastic. But the best moment is clearly when the female vocals sweep in. There’s just enough delay on her voice to bring out the shape of the melody. From 2:03 onwards is just bliss. 8/10

Holy Mountain: I still love this song to death. It’s just a fun, bombastic, and beefy tune. Once again, fantastic bass track. The tin whistle is still the most infectious part of Holy Mountain, and the horns being blasted in my face makes me dance every single time. Catchy hooks and melodies burst from this song, it’s amazing that it’s barely being hung together. 8/10

Keep on Reaching: This has to be busiest bass in the history of a Gallagher related song. The beginning kinda sounds like a mix of Marvin Gay/Curtis Mayfield/The Spinners. The Strings/horns/the backing vocalists capture that Motown sound so perfectly. My biggest issue with the song is the vocals. They’re pretty clear in the first verse, but past that they get drowned out too much. The poor mixing on the vocals causes the song to lose its drive and sound samey past the 1:20 mark. The song also goes on for maybe 10 seconds too long. 6/10

It’s A Beautiful World: I don’t know if I like the lyrics for the verses, but the effect on Noel’s voice makes me like them. The syncopated drumming with that nice tremeloed guitar riff is one of the stronger and catchiest points of the album. I don’t mind the chorus as much others. For me, it’s a standard chorus. Not the best, but not bad by any means either. I think it’s perfectly fine. However, I do have three issues with IABW. 1. I really do believe that a soft guitar line should have come in before the French portion. It didn’t have to be a solo, but I’ve personally been playing my guitar over it with some delay, and a simple three note line would have done wonders for the mood. Secondly, I really would have liked another instrument to come in during the last chorus, just for more variation. Lastly, there’s a 4 beat persuasive hit at 3:49 that’s a bit annoying. Musically, I get the point but it’s a little too obvious in the mix. 7/10

She Taught Me How to Fly: At first, I rated this a 6/10, but it’s literally been stuck in my head for the last few days. There are some great layers underneath it that reveal themselves on repeated listens. A recorded vocal in a controlled setting does a lot for the song, as opposed to the live version. Also, in a recorded setting I didn’t notice the repetitiveness of it. Initially, that was my biggest issue with the track. Here, with me being able to hear all of the layers and a bit of the variation in the instrumentation it makes the song a lot less repetitive. In the end, it’s an enjoyable little pop song. 8/10

Be Careful What You Wish For: What I think I enjoy most from this album is how Noel is back to expounding on previous ideas rather than just blatantly recycling. The Come Together rip could have easily devolved into altar bowing. Instead, the progression the song takes sounds like something that Noel should have been doing on Be Here Now. Could anyone imagine if Noel had combined his love of the Beatles with advanced arrangements earlier? Noel’s produced a weird piece of music, jammed with strings, interesting vocal harmonies, and cool bass and guitar grooves. Honestly, I never thought I’d hear it. Also, the solo is just so sweet, effecting, and off-kilter. For that matter, the percussion on here is probably the most colorful of the entire album. Every listen of this song brings out something different. Some people think it's too long, but I love the patience of it. It's one of the two songs on the album that it feels like I'm only the person who's super into it 9/10

Black & White Sunshine: I've rated this up a lot over the past few days, since it often pops in my head (originally 6/10). So far, I think I'm one of the only people who absolutely loves this song. I think Noel should have produced Lock all the Doors like this. It’s just faster and a little bit dirtier. The chorus is probably the strongest on the album. The verses sound a little bit too close to Do the Damage for my liking. Still, it’s a change of pace and euphoric rocker and I think better than Noel’s usual efforts at those kind of tracks, lately. 8/10

Wednesday Part 1: For a second I thought it sounded like In a Black Out by Hamilton Leithauser+Rostam. I wonder if this song was ever anything else, like if it ever had lyrics (listening to a new interview from Noel, it appears that it never had lyrics). In any case, it really does capture that kind of credits/intermission music that you might get in a longer film. 8/10

If Love is the Law: This really sounds a lot like Lord Huron. It hasn’t really grown on me. Maybe because it feels like a such a summer song, and it’s been cold in Chicago (at least up until the last couple of days), but I haven’t connected to it. It just sounds too pop for my taste, a little too kitsch, and a little too inoffensive. I think Marr’s Harmonica might be the portion I least like. I don’t know what I would have put in its place, but it sounds a little too ordinary. I think it’s the weakest song on the album 5/10

The Man on the Moon: I’ve listened a few times, and I’ve been racking my brain on what it sounds like it. But I noticed that the riff bears a strong resemblance to Come on Outside. But man, the heaviness of this song, and the effect in the background with the Gregorian choir. Like, wow. I think this might be Noel’s best song of his solo career. This is a perfect example of Noel’s great ear with melody being combined with a smart producer with vision. I don’t think I’ve ever rated a song this high in one of these reviews, but “You and I, the Spider and the Fly, will meet where the shadows fall.” 10/10

Wednesday Part 2: This one sounds really Radiohead-ish, I’ve been trying to think of which track, but nothing is coming to mind. At first, I was disappointed on first listen, but with each successive listen, I think it tidies things up well and perfectly leads into DITW. However, I still wish that the proper tracklisting didn’t end on an instrumental. 7/10

Dead in the Water: I think this is probably Noel’s most personal track since SOTSOG. The lyrics are utterly beautiful, and they really sound like something Noel would have written back during Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory (the references to not having money). It really reminds me of something from Springsteen’s Nebraska. I don’t know if I want it to be fully produced, it just sounds perfect the way it is. A lot of the appeal to something like Nebraska is the fact that it was never polished or rerecorded from the demos that were released. I feel the same with this. It also kinda feels like when you see a biopic of a famous artist and there’s always a scene where they sit down and magically write the song in a minute, and you think, that never happens. 9/10

God Help Us All: The more I listen to this song, the more I despise it. This album should end with Dead in the Water, I’m glad it does for most of the world. This falls more under the Noel could write this in his sleep category than Dead in the Water. 3/10

Looking back on the album, it reminds me a bit of McCartney I. In the sense that that album was about the spirit, about McCartney really finding himself after the Beatles, about the recording process, and featured a lot of him taking tiny ideas and expanding them. A lot of McCartney I sounds like him having fun, some of it kitsch and some of it brilliant. A lot of that album is also peering into McCartney's process and hearing him build those songs. Who Built the Moon is all of that. My biggest negatives for the album, are that some of the lyrics just needed more polishing. Also, the placement of the instrumental tracks (which should be spaced further apart). I've been trying to think about where I rank this among Noel's solo albums, and my first impression is that I'd have to listen back to the other solo albums.

However, I do know that this is Noel pushing himself the most. Some say that the melodies have suffered through this process. Quite frankly, I just don't hear that. This album is packed with melodies. It's packed with melodies, textures, colors, and varied rhythms. I think much of what is happening on here are some of Noel's most patient and mature melodic concepts in a while. I also don't get the "fall out of the sky" narrative. It's a propaganda piece that Noel's been pushing for ages. Songs come in varied states, some on the road, some in the studio, some under pressure, and some sitting in front of your television. Writing and perfecting a song is hard work. All songs fall out of the sky, and all songs have to be worked on to be perfected.

I really love this album. I love that Noel is really starting to change his musical perceptions. Because in the end, the best artists don't have a select style (that's why the fall out of the sky stuff is pure none sense). Some of the best and most affecting pieces of music start out with, "What haven't I done?" I hope Noel is starting to realize that. Quite honestly, if Noel had been more open about how he writes, then maybe that would have broken him out of his songwriting rut al la Heathen Chemistry, a lot sooner. A change in medium can spur great work, rarely does it inhibit great work. I hope that Noel carries this through and we get a few albums like this. For me, Who Built the Moon is a 7.5/10 album, with the possibility of being an 8/10.