ADRIAN THRILLS: Liam the tough guy shows his soft side on third solo album

LIAM GALLAGHER: C'mon You Know (Warner)

Rating: ****

Verdict: Still feeling supersonic 

DEF LEPPARD: Diamond Star Halos (Mercury)

Rating: ***

Verdict: Sparkling return

When Liam Gallagher started to plan his third solo album in 2019, he immediately began talking it up as a fast and furious affair in the style of rock and roll hellraiser Iggy Pop.

In keeping with his reputation as Britpop's enfant terrible, he vowed to crank up the guitars and stay well away from ballads.

Three years and one pandemic later, C'mon You Know is finally here… and the reality is somewhat different. The former Oasis firebrand has shifted the dial, but it's towards something less combustible and more reflective. 'Mother, I'll admit that I was angry for too long,' he sighs on More Power. 'I'm sick of acting like I'm tough,' he adds on the title track.

So, is Gallagher, 49, mellowing? Not quite. Only this week he was involved in a foul-mouthed Twitter spat with football pundit Jamie Carragher.

His forthcoming run of open-air gigs are guaranteed to be among the summer's most raucous, confirming his stature as the greatest frontman of his era. But the promised fire and brimstone doesn't quite materialise here.

And those derided ballads? Well they haven't exactly been jettisoned. His writing is still in thrall to The Beatles and Rolling Stones — sometimes too heavily — but there are also surprising detours into psychedelia, acoustic folk and even (whisper it) reggae.

As with his two previous solo albums, C'mon You Know is collaborative. Andrew Wyatt returns as his main producer and co-writer, and the New Yorker has brought some of the leading lights of alternative rock along for the ride. There are cameos from Dave Grohl, Vampire Weekend singer Ezra Koenig and Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner.

It's Liam's voice that carries the day, though. The unfussy arrangements are tailored to suit his raspy timbre and he still reaches impressively for those distinctive top notes. Some of the songs may be so-so, but it's the way he sings 'em.

He begins with a curve ball. More Power opens with a school choir, harking back to You Can't Always Get What You Want by the Stones.

There's another nod to Mick Jagger and company on Everything's Electric, with Grohl's thunderous drums at the heart of a song that looks to Gimme Shelter.

It's not long before the first Beatles reference seeps in, with Diamond In The Dark shamelessly plundering the 'now I know how many holes it takes to…' line from A Day In The Life.

Despite his initial reticence, there are some fine ballads. Too Good For Giving Up borders on country, thanks to the presence of pedal steel wizard B. J. Cole, and Oh Sweet Children is a tenderly sung John Lennon pastiche.

Given its title, Moscow Rules is more problematic. Co-written with Koenig, the song is a delicate piece about loneliness and not an endorsement of Russian aggression. Liam has conceded that his timing is poor, although physical copies of the album were already being manufactured before the invasion of Ukraine, giving him no time to change the lyrics.

Elsewhere, there's some experimentation. World's In Need is a harmonica-driven sea shanty, and Better Days a swirling rocker that features a sample from Tove Lo's Bad Days and psychedelic guitar by Zinner.

The only misfire is I'm Free, which jumps between turbo-charged rock and, yes, reggae. In its more confessional moments, C'mon You Know is Liam as we've never heard him before. At other times, it's business as usual.

As a primer for the biggest shows of his solo career, though, it keeps things ticking over nicely.

n DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott has voiced his unhappiness at the lack of critical respect given to his band, despite their huge success.

But if the Sheffield quintet have never been as fashionable as their more alternative-minded peers, they know how to play to their strengths — and their first new album in seven years is a hard-rocking blast.

Named after a line in T. Rex's glam classic Get It On, Diamond Star Halos contains throwbacks to 1970s idols Marc Bolan, David Bowie and Mott The Hoople. Take What You Want is riff-heavy and tuneful. The stomping Kick is a magnificent late addition to the running order, just as the band's signature tune, Pour Some Sugar On Me, was a last-minute inclusion on 1987's 25 million-selling Hysteria.

Elliott's love of Bowie extends to two ballads featuring Mike Garson, the New York jazz pianist whose avant-garde runs were prominent on Bowie's Aladdin Sane.

There are also two duets with bluegrass star Alison Krauss, who shines on country ramble Lifeless before moving up a gear on This Guitar, a ballad in the style of Guns N' Roses' November Rain

If Elliott and Krauss seem unlikely musical bedfellows, it's worth remembering that she has worked with Robert Plant before (twice); while Def Leppard once played a full show with Taylor Swift.

Mike Garson? Alison Krauss? At this rate, Def Leppard are going to end up being cool.

Liam Gallagher starts a tour at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, on Wednesday (livenation.co.uk).

Van Morrison used last year's Latest Record Project, Volume 1 to vent his frustration at lockdown. Whether you agreed with his scepticism — he urged musicians to fight the 'pseudo-science' surrounding Covid-19 — his dissenting views were at least timely. Now the world is opening up again, another lengthy sermon feels like needlessly heavy going.

What's It Gonna Take? finds him railing afresh against 'the new normal'. The odd thing is that his grievances are paired with such uplifting music that, in small doses, this is an eminently listenable record.

His voice is in great shape, and the arrangements, dotted with his elegant sax work, are a joy. It's just his words that jar.