Dig Out Your Soul (2008)
No response, May 13, 2009
For their seventh studio album, Brit-pop stalwarts and general rock ‘n’ roll survivors Oasis have stuck mostly to theirguns, releasing a collection of bracing, swaggering rock songs with the odd moment of bluster throw into the mix. Though the hallmarks of the Oasis sound remain (Beatles-influenced pop with a classic rock edge), ‘Dig Out Your Soul’ is notable for the more riff-based songwriting style and the mix ofauthors. Vocalist Liam Gallagher contributes three songs, while his brother and guitarist Noel contributes the majority. Features the single ‘The Shock Of The Lightning’.
1. Bag It Up
2. Turning
3. Waiting For The Rapture
4. Shock Of The Lightning
5. I’m Outta Time
6. Get Off Your High Horse Lady
7. Falling Down
8. To Be Where There’s Life
9. Ain’t Got Nothin’
10. Nature Of Reality
11. Soldier On
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:.jpg)
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”).
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.
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
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 
