The Notes You Never Hear: A Brief Review Of Pinball Wanderer, The New Album From Andy Bell (Ride, Oasis, Beady Eye)

Andy Bell continues to move in interesting directions. Even as Ride is a continuing proposition, the musician's solo work has ventured into styles less beholden to that band's work. Pinball Wanderer, his newest album, is out this week, and it's full of a kind of spacious post-rock that's somehow more than shoegaze but also not entirely too different either.

Opener "Panic Attack" sets the scene. Loose, and airy, the track is only the prelude to the absolutely superb cover of "I'm in Love with a German Film Star" by The Passions that comes next. Andy Bell gets help on this track from Dot Allison (One Dove) and Michael Rother (Neu!). Here titled "I'm in Love...", the classic is re-imagined as a sort of updating of "I Feel Love", Allison's breathy vocals carrying this one into the ether. It's an instant classic and already one of the best singles of 2025 and it's only February. Elsewhere, the space folk of the title cut is a cousin to the kind of material that Dot Allison has recently been gifting us, while "The Notes You Never Hear" is one of a few cuts here where the electronics and treatments seem nearly as important, if not more so, than the actual vocals of Andy Bell himself. Production on this record from Andy's Oasis and Beady Eye band-mate Gem Archer gives this whole record a sheen not entirely unlike that second BE album.

There's a risk for certain fans of Andy Bell to approach this and be disappointed, especially so if they were expecting a one-man Ride record. That said, there's lots to enjoy on Pinball Wanderer for those open to styles beyond guitar-rock. Bell's approach here is an adventurous one, and the influences of acts as disparate as Stereolab and The Stone Roses can be heard in the grooves and sinuous hooks of this album. After you're done playing The Passions cover about a dozen times in a row, you may end up loving the risk-taking going on around that selection here on Pinball Wanderer.

Pinball Wanderer by Andy Bell is out on Friday, February 28 via Sonic Cathedral.

[Photo: Perou]