Ok, so tbh I wasn't the most impressed by this last EP. At most it's a documentation of Noel in the gym: refining his songwriting skills/production ideas in preparation for a main event (hopefully his next album), but, on its own, not substantive enough to warrant repeated listening. And that makes sense - after all this is only an EP. Nobody's gonna waste their best songs on a thing you have to scroll way down on Spotify to even see, and Noel seems to have learned his lesson from the 90s.

Black Star Dancing is nice but the more I listened to it the more it grated on my nerves. I'm not sure why. It might have something to do with the midtempo arrangement. But the one thing that BSD proved to me is the importance of David Holmes. WBTM would've sounded like BSD if Holmes hadn't been involved, i.e. much less good. That's the funny thing about BSD - it's got a lot of the elements of songs from WBTM, but it's missing that extra spark of creativity and burst of energy that makes WBTM Noel's best album since BHN. There's often a very fine line between brilliance and blandness, and it seems that Noel needs someone like David Holmes to streamline and refine his ideas to make something truly great. In fact, I believe SOTSOG would have been a much better album had Noel brought a producer who actually challenged him and pushed him in new directions. Still, BSD is an indication that Noel is willing to try new things even without Holmes, which is great.

I don't understand your comparison of Rattling Rose and Holy Mountain whatsoever??? One is a euphoric blast of creative energy from start to finish, and the other is simply a refinement of a road Noel's traveled down countless times. Rattling Rose is at best a CY outtake that beats a lot of CY at its own game, in fairness, but bc it came out after WBTM it sounds like a step backward. However, like BSD, it shows a lot more twists and turns in its arrangements (particularly the drums) than your average Noel song, so for that alone I give it good marks - and that really shows that Noel is improving as a producer. I'm not that impressed with the song itself, to me Noel was using the song to showcase new production tricks he'd learned, rather than using production to augment the song.

Sail On is the true gem of the lot imo, it feels like a culmination of a line of songs Noel has been writing for a long time, a family tree that includes She Is Love, I'd Pick You Everytime, and Leave My Guitar Alone. It's also got the perfect combination of forward determinism and teary-eyed nostalgia. I first thought Sail On was just a refinement of Noel's songwriting abilities, but there's more to it that that. It's got the one thing that's sorely lacking in the other two songs of the EP: spontaneity. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if Sail On was recorded in one take. That's crucial to making good music - WBTM succeeds largely because it feels spontaneous, natural even. It's also the difference between a dud like IIHAG and sheer brilliance like Dead in the Water. That's also very much a production trick btw, a good producer is like a photographer, knowing when exactly to capture a song in its best moment (which, for songs like Sail On, is often in only a few takes).

I know you aren't the biggest fan of Sail On, and I'm genuinely curious as to why. I also can't remember what you think of Black Star Dancing - do you care to explain?