Council Skies
Council Skies is the fourth studio album by English rock band Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Produced by Gallagher and longtime engineer Paul Stacey, it was released on 2 June 2023, through Gallagher's label Sour Mash Records. It is the first album Gallagher has recorded in his own recording studio: Lone Star Studios with string sessions taking place at Abbey Road Studios in April 2022. Five singles have been released from the album so far: "Pretty Boy", "Easy Now", "Dead to the World", "Open the Door, See What You Find" and the title track "Council Skies".

Background
Gallagher began demoing the album in late 2021 with sessions commencing at Lone Star Studios in January 2022. Johnny Marr features on three tracks on the album, including lead single: "Pretty Boy".Gallagher has described the album as "going back to the beginning. Daydreaming, looking up at the sky and wondering about what life could be…". When discussing the album title, Gallagher said "The title comes from a book by the artist Pete McKee. I was writing the song which was to become Council Skies, but it wasn't called Council Skies. There's a bit in the song when I was writing it, where a phrase was missing - I didn't know what that phrase was gonna be." He went on to say: "Pete's book happened to be on my coffee table at home. So I called him up and said, Can I use this title? And he said yeah. And I rewrote the song and then subsequently a lot of other things started to fall into place.".

Artwork and cover
The artwork is taken by Kevin Cummins and features the band's live equipment set up on the original centre spot of where Manchester City's Maine Road football stadium once stood.

Singles
On 31 October 2022, the song "Pretty Boy" was released as the first single. On 17 January 2023, "Easy Now" was released as the album's second single. On 23 March 2023, "Dead to the World" was released as the album's third single. On 20 April 2023, "Council Skies" was released as the album's fourth single. On 31 May 2023, "Open the Door, See What You Find" was released as the album's fifth single.

Critical reception
Council Skies received critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from publications, the album received an average score of 81 based on 11 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".Emma Harrison of Clash wrote of 'Council Skies' that it was 'Surefooted, revelatory, well-rounded and emotionally deep, ‘Council Skies’ cements his reputation as one of the best songwriters the UK has ever produced. This collection of songs is one of his finest post-Oasis offerings, and it feels like the album that Noel and his High Flying Birds have been aching to make'.

Track listing
Personnel
Charts


== References ==