As a compilation title, Back the Way We Came is so clever its a wonder its never been used before. Its also a title that fits Noel Gallagher, who has specialized in finding the unexpected within the familiar. He sharpened these skills as the leader of Oasis and carried them over into his High Flying Birds, the group of pros he assembled after he got fed up dealing with the amateurish antics of his brother Liam. Back the Way We Came arrived upon the tenth anniversary of the first album from Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds and, as a record, it has a surprisingly cohesive narrative. The first disc contains songs from the first two HFB albums, records Noel made when he was determined to be tasteful and controlled in a way Oasis never was. The second opens with Black Star Dancing, a non-LP disco single from 2019 that announces how Gallagher wound up making brighter, vibrant music after he got his muso ambitions out of his system. Its an interesting trajectory -- and one that bodes well for his next decade -- and it makes for a more absorbing listen than nearly all of the High Flying Birds albums, its consistency due in part to how the second disc collects all his non-LP angles from the back half of the 2010s, a move that also is decidedly consumer-friendly. (If that wasnt enough to hook fans, theres an edition of Back the Way We Came with a third disc containing instrumentals, remixes, demos, and acoustic versions of the core HFB catalog, odds, and ends that are surprisingly satisfying when gathered together.) ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rovi