Noel Gallagher is celebrating 50 in style.

The English rocker rang in the big 5-0 with Who Built the Moon?, his newest album and the third released since his split from Oasis in 2009. Though Oasis sent Gallagher skyrocketing to fame in the mid-’90s with hits such as “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova”, an altercation between him and lead singer/brother Liam damaged the band irreparably and led him to create the solo endeavor Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, a project that has had no problem churning out innovative, eclectic music since its 2010 inception.

Who Built the Moon? is nothing if not a proud continuation of Gallagher’s experimental efforts. The album is a bold yet successful dip into several of Gallagher’s musical whims, from high-octane glam rock to psychedelic instrumentals. Gallagher sets the mood aptly in”High Mountain”,  delivering a horn-driven anthem with earworm lyrics perfect for a windows-down drive to help you get out of a bad mood. “She Taught Me How to Fly”, though admittedly lacking in any lyrical substance (“The one I love/The one I love/She’s divine/She’s out to blow my mind/The one I love/The one I love/She’s divine), keeps the party going with an uptempo beat.

Gallagher doesn’t stop at the peppy anthems, though. He packs a wide variety, allowing all genres to shine on their own. “Be Careful What You Wish For” shifts gears, taking the sound down a notch to deliver an acerbic condemnation of the mainstream with a sauntering, bluesy beat evocative of The Beatles’ “Come Together”. The last track on the album, “Dead in the Water,” is a completely acoustic and touching love ballad that proves Gallagher is still just as good as he ever was without the heavily-produced frills of the other ten tracks.

Scattered throughout are instrumental interludes that provide a relaxing break from the high-powered rock. Both “Interlude (Wednesday, Pt. 1)” and “End Credits (Wednesday, Pt.2)” are dreamy, acoustic guitar-laden tracks that sound more like Moby beats than creations of a former rock ‘n’ roller, yet they can be considered a worthy risk as they complement the rest of the album well.

Upon finishing the album,  I had few qualms. I found “It’s a Beautiful World” and “Black and White Sunshine” to be rather forgettable and generic, like something I would hear in a Hyundai commercial. Additionally, I was underwhelmed by some of the cliche lyrics as it seemed at times that Gallagher opted for platitudes over substance. Ultimately, though, my overwhelming takeaway was that Who Built the Moon? was a solid expansion to Gallagher’s already impressive discography, because it was just plain fun to listen to. The sheer scope of musicality that Gallagher explores in the album is admirable, and it all sounds like it could be a soundtrack to an indie movie, with heartbreaking lows and triumphant highs. There truly is a song for every feeling.

Perhaps the lyric video to “If Love is the Law”, the ninth track on the album, can act as a metaphor for the album as a whole: the video starts with a kaleidoscopic glimpse at the moon before it presents shots of a swiveling Maneki-Neko, spliced with crashing waves and close-ups of eyes. Chaotic? Maybe, but nonetheless aesthetically appealing and excitingly unpredictable.

Rating: B+