Oasis albums have always prompted flashbacks– Is that chorus on loan from T. Rex? Wait, wasn’t that a Crowded House song once? Was that a Beatles melody? But the gobby British rock band’s latest sounds like a pop artifact. In both production and execution, Don’t Believe The Truth sounds like an album better released 1965 than 2005. From the tambourines and jangling guitars that chime in opening track “Turn Up To The Sun” to the tinny pre-hippie philosophizing of “Keep The Dream Alive,” it’s an album that thinks looking backward is the way forward. Its first single “Lyla” borrows its opening swagger from the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” while “The Meaning of Soul” lifts the Small Faces’ mod jitters wholesale. But hack through the clichéd lyrics and worn riffs and the most important element on the follow up to 2002’s Heathen Chemistry remains distinctly Oasis’ own:

1. Turn Up the Sun
2. Muckey Fingers
3. Lyla
4. Love Like a Bomb
5. The Importance of Being Idle
6. The Meaning Of Soul
7. Guess God Things I’m Abel
8. Part Of The Queue
9. Keep The Dream Alive
10. A Bell Will Ring
11. Let There Be Love

Even the great Noel and Liam Gallagher would admit that their band has not released a mega hit album since their 1994 debut, Definitely Maybe, and its world famous, charting topping 1995 follow-up, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?. But that does not mean the Manchester band has been in short supply of great singles. With just Liam and Noel sticking it out through the whole thing, this generous double album picks the best riffs, choruses, and sneers from the group’s decade-plus career, offering fans a chance to rediscover early pub classics (”Slide Away,” “Some Might Say”), latter-day retro-rock gems (”The Importance of Being Idle,” “Lyla”), and some surprisingly decent B-sides that could have otherwise easily been obscured by the eyebrows (”The Masterplan”).

1. Rock n Roll Star
2. Some Might Say
3. Talk Tonight
4. Lyla
5. The Importance Of Being Idle
6. Wonderwall
7. Slide Away
8. Cigarettes & Alcohol
9. The Masterplan
10. Live Forever
11. Acquiesce
12. Supersonic
13. Half The World Away
14. Go Let It Out
15. Songbird
16. Morning Glory
17. Champagne Supernova
18. Don’t Look Back In Anger

With the swaggering chords of the opening “Rock’N'Roll Star,” Oasis announced that big, brash Brit rock was here to stay–at least for a few years. They wore their rock & roll with an angry young sneer, a Mancunian petulance wedded to a vision of cathartic release. Their supersonic two-guitar attack took them “Up in the Sky,” where they would “Live Forever” or burn out in a blaze of alcoholic glory. Noel Gallagher’s songs weren’t subtle–or shy of overt plagiarism–but, spat out in the Lennonesque snarl of little brother Liam, they took on a venomous power that had millions of young Brits taking them at their own arrogant word. In the U.S., meanwhile, the response was more Maybe than Definitely.

1. Rock ‘N’ Roll Sta
2. Shakermaker
3. Live Forever
4. Up In The Sky
5. Columbia
6. Supersonic (Live at The Metro)
7. Bring It On Down
8. Cigarettes & Alcohol
9. Digsy’s Dinner
10. Slide Away
11. Married With Children

At their career peak, Oasis were branded as the best band on the globe. They were actually never the greatest rock & roll band, but for a few years they were the biggest. While they offered the ’90s two of its most defining albums, and a resurgence of ’60s-influenced Manchester rock, Oasis tumbled off the top of the mountain in the last half of the decade. Heathen Chemistry is route back to the top, albeit a small step. The album opens with the track “The Hindu Times,” which will most likely be considered amongst Oasis’s best anthems, and it closes with “Better Man,” a distorted-guitar-driven thrill that revs up to 60 mph in second gear. But between the strongest songs on the disc, Noel and Liam Gallagher exploit the Beatles references almost to the breaking point. It’s not a secret that the Gallaghers worship the Beatles (who doesn’t?), but here they’ve gone beyond obvious influences and stepped right into infringement grounds. On “Born on a Different Cloud,” Noel’s guitar weeps a little too gently, and Liam’s signature rasp now sounds like a deliberate imitation of Lennon with a sore throat. Further, Liam shares the mic with Noel, who sings lead on several tracks, the best being “Force of Nature.” Unlike on Beatles albums, however, the switch back and forth is jarring (Liam might be the biggest troublemaker, but he is also the better singer). Nonetheless, if a band is going to unapologetically rip off what was unquestionably the best band in the world, no one does it better than Oasis

1. The Hindu Times
2. Force Of Nature
3. Hung In A Bad Place
4. Stop Crying Your Heart Out
5. Songbird
6. Little By Little
7. A Quick Peep
8. (Probably) All In The Mind
9. She Is Love
10. Born On A Different Cloud
11. Better Man

In 2000 Oasis wisely dispensed with theatrics and concentrated on being the world’s greatest stadium-sized pub-rock band. And so, they toured the world with just three mammoth video walls in tow. Big as the video screens were, however, the band’s Liam Gallagher’s mouth and  straight-ahead rock were even bigger, and contributed much to the drama, tension, and entertainment of the tour behind Standing on the Shoulder of Giants. Fine examples of both were recorded when they played Wembley Stadium. Musically, Oasis make good on their claims to be the biggest, the baddest and the best with rocking versions of “Supersonic,” “Shakermaker,” “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” and “Live Forever.” As for Liam, Familiar to Millions wouldn’t be half the album it is had his inane ramblings, brotherly abuse, and audience taunts been edited out. That’s where the real live atmosphere lies–there and in the sound of 70,000 fans singing the choruses of “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger.”

Disc 1
1. Fuckin’ In The Bushes (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
2. Go Let It Out (Live from Wembley Stadium, 2000)
3. Who Feels Love? (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
4. Supersonic (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
5. Shakermaker (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
6. Acquiesce (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
7. Step Out (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
8. Gas Panic! (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
9. Roll With It (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
10. Stand By Me (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)

Disc 2
1. Wonderwall (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
2. Cigarettes & Alcohol (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
3. Don’t Look Back In Anger (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
4. Live Forever (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
5. Hey Hey, My, My (Into The Black) (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
6. Champagne Supernova (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
7. Rock ‘N’ Roll Star (Live at Wembley Stadium, 2000)
8. Helter Skelter (Live for SFX Radio, 2000)

With Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, the self-professed “biggest rock & roll band in the world” continue their exploration of great British rock of the late ’60s. Paying homage to heroes is one thing, but many of Standing’s best moments sound like their icons’ low points. This is Oasis, however, and they do pull some stunners out of their hats. “Gas Panic” and “Where Did It All Go Wrong?” demonstrate the command of catchy hooks and epic anthems that powered their classic first two albums, Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Elsewhere, their influences are more obvious. The psychedelic “Who Feels Love?” is George Harrison in full Eastern mystic mode, complete with sitar, tabla, and tape loops. The rocker “Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is” has the strut and stomp of vintage Doors and Rolling Stones, but is ultimately let down by weak wordplay. Liam Gallagher’s “Little James,” a paean to paternal love, also contains some laughable couplets (”You live for your toys, even though they make noise”). Still, Standing is a definite improvement over its 1997 predecessor, Be Here Now. For real proof that Oasis resurrected Britpop in the ’90s, newcomers would do well to investigate Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

1 Fuckin’ In The Bushes
2 Go Let It Out
3 Who Feels Love?
4 Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is
5 Little James
6 Gas Panic!
7 Where Did It All Go Wrong?
8 Sunday Morning Call
9 I Can See A Liar
10 Roll It Over

Following a British rock tradition started by The Beatles and lovingly inherited by The Jam and The Clash, Oasis is the only band of the CD era to offer fans extra tracks on their singles that are often as good as, if not better than, the hits. Rather than saving his new songs for the next full album, Noel Gallagher prefers immediate action. Thus, this compilation of those various so-called “B-Sides”–many available as non-imports for the first time–works just great as a listening experience, offering metallic rushes (”Acquiesce,” “The Swamp Song”) and absolute melodic beauty (”Talk Tonight,” the marvelous “Rockin’ Chair”), while conjuring up the ghosts of Mott the Hoople, T. Rex, The Fab Four, and Slade, although Oasis’s “Cum On Feel the Noize” is sadly absent.

1. Acquiesce
2. Underneath The Sky
3. Talk Tonight
4. Going Nowhere
5. Fade Away
6. The Swamp Song
7. I Am The Walrus (Live at The Soundcheck, Scotland)
8. Listen Up
9. Rockin’ Chair
10. Half The World Away
11. (It’s Good) To Be Free
12. Stay Young
13. Headshrinker
14. The Masterplan

1. D’You Know What I Mean?
2. My Big Mouth
3. Magic Pie
4. Stand By Me
5. I Hope, I Think, I Know
6. The Girl In The Dirty Shirt
7. Fade In-Out
8. Don’t Go Away
9. Be Here Now
10. All Around
11. It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)
12. All Around The World (Reprise)

This mammoth rock of an album justifies some, if by no means all of the poses and pretentious statements made by Manchester’s natural-born rock & roll Gods. A dramatic attempt to rekindle the flames of the original British Invasion, Morning Glory rolls 30 years of Britpop tradition into one irresistible (if achingly self-conscious) whole. “Wonderwall” can be read as a Beatles tribute, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” feels like a Mott The Hoople anthem and “She’s Electric” and “Morning Glory” are chewy pop confections with a great s\rock sound.

1. Hello
2. Roll With It
3. Wonderwall
4. Don’t Look Back In Anger
5. Hey Now
6. The Swamp Song (Version 1)
7. Some Might Say
8. Cast No Shadow
9. She’s Electric
10. Morning Glory
11. The Swamp Song (Version 2)
12. Champagne Supernova