It was released on 29 April 2021 as a new single to launch Back The Way We Came: Vol. 1 (2011–2021), the High Flying Birds’ first-decade “best of” compilation. Noel’s official site described the album as celebrating 10 years of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, with two new songs included: “We’re On Our Way Now” and “Flying On The Ground.”
The song itself is about grief, regret and not getting closure. Noel explained it very directly: “It’s a song about not getting to say goodbye and the frustration of things left unsaid.” That gives the track a slightly haunted quality. It is not just a general “moving forward” anthem; it feels like someone looking back at a person who has gone, trying to make peace with what was never said.
Musically, it sits closer to classic Noel than the more experimental Who Built The Moon? period. There is a stately, mid-tempo feel to it: acoustic-led, melodic, with strings and backing vocals helping the chorus lift. It has some of the emotional DNA of songs like “The Dying of the Light” and “Dead in the Water,” but it is less stripped-back than those. It is polished, warm and radio-friendly without feeling throwaway.
The title can sound optimistic on first glance — “We’re On Our Way Now” — but the verses are darker than that. The song balances loss with movement. It is about someone being gone, but also about the people left behind having to continue. That contrast is very Noel: sadness wrapped inside a chorus that still feels communal.
The official video gave the song extra atmosphere. It starred Matt Smith and Gala Gordon, with Noel making a cameo, and was directed by Dan Cadan and Jonathan Mowatt for Rankin. Reports at the time described the video as having a French New Wave influence, which fits the song’s mood: stylish, slightly detached, but emotionally heavy underneath.
In the High Flying Birds catalogue, it works almost like a closing-chapter song for the first ten years. It was not attached to a normal studio album campaign, but to a retrospective. That matters. Placed on Back The Way We Came, it feels like Noel looking back over the decade after Oasis, taking stock of what had happened, who had been lost, and what remained unresolved.