Review Summary: Oasis fall flat on album number 7, ditch the guitars but still borrow from The Beatles
Oasis, the finest example of Britpop/rock, have indulged in all the aspects of rock n roll excess over the years. Drugs, tabloids, drinking, arrests, band infighting, line-up changes, marriages and children. They had two fantastic, commercially successful and critically acclaimed albums in the early 90s, but then suffered a departure from the lime light (especially outside of the UK) until a resurgence in popularity in 2005 off of the back their latest album ‘Don’t Believe the Truth’. Yet Oasis throw the reacquired acclaim away with the release of ‘Dig Out Your Soul’. The guitars are mostly thrown away in preference to instruments not usually associated with Oasis. Keyboards, electric synths and the odd splash of harmonica give a different flavour to some of the tracks which would most likely be off-putting to Oasis purists. Despite claiming to hate the comparison that Oasis often get with the Beatles, this album is littered with lyrical references and ideas borrowed from the Beatles. The album was also recorded at the Abbey Road studios and Zak Starkey (who has since left the band), son of Ringo Starr, drummed on most of the album.
Oasis deserve credit for including the words ‘ebee jeebies’ as chorus lyrics in ‘Bag It Up’, the albums opening track. ‘Bag It Up’ is classic Oasis, featuring a stomping beat and fantastic vocal delivery by Liam which would give you the impression of a great album to follow. ‘Someone tell me I’m dreamin/The freaks are rising up through the floor/Everything I believe in/Telling me I want more, more, more!’, Liam’s orgasmic emphasis of ‘more, more, more!’ highlight the urgency and energy of the track. The songs atmosphere is ruined somewhat by the ever present single note guitar ringing out repeatedly throughout most of the track. Next track ‘The Turning’ relies on a bass heavy and keyboard driven intro which leads it the song through the verses into the pounding, grunge-esque chorus but too quickly returns to the docile verse tune. ‘The Turning’ ends in an almost note for note rip off of the Beatles song ‘Dear Prudence’ fade out for its coda. ‘Waiting for the Rapture’ is the first Noel Gallagher sung tune on ‘Dig Out Your Soul’. The second shortest song on the album features circus and showground imagery and the odd Beatles reference (see ‘Revolution’, ‘Helter Skelter’ and ‘Yer Blues’). Noels vocals are well delivered but their the only stand out point of this track.
The albums’ center point and first single is ‘The Shock of Lightning’. A pounding guitar driven romp however there is little difference between the verse and chorus where they seemingly and lazily merge together to form a song. Usually the lead Oasis single would feature an epic and self indulgence Noel Gallagher solo, yet on ‘The Shock of Lightning’ the guitar solo merely follows the melody of Liam’s vocal performance.
The Beatles similarities continue in the Liam Gallagher written and sung ‘I’m Outta Time’ which not only features an excerpt from a John Lennon interview from 1980, but also piano work that sounds strikingly similar to that of the iconic Beatles track ‘A Day In The Life’ (keep an ear out for the piano changes just before each chorus). The lyrics are almost childlike, ‘If I were to fall/Would you be there to applaud/Or would you hide behind the ball’.
The next two tracks, ‘(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady’ and ‘Falling Down’ are both Noel Gallagher sung tracks that deviate slightly from the tracks preceding them. ‘(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady’ is an almost countryish stomp featuring highly distorted vocals (which is a shame because there’s nothing wrong with Noel’s voice), echoey, warbled guitars and an almost industrial twang to the heavy guitar work present in the later half of the song. ‘Falling Down’ is a track that shares some of the elemental sounds from ‘Don’t Believe the Truth’ and could easily have fitted on their previous album. Its inclusion here however is a refreshing taste of Oasis that has seemingly been missing from a majority of the album up until this point. Noels singing is passionate and direct and the piano is used tastefully in the background as a flourish to the song, not as a in-your-face manner as the keyboards have been used on the other tracks.
Gem Archer contributes ‘To Be Were There’s Life’, an Indian flavoured tune swathed in sitars and a walking bass line supplied by Andy Bell. The song has a dreamy, sway like atmosphere featuring the odd handclaps and echoes that give the song a heavy psychedelic feel. ‘Ain’t Got Nothin’’, a Liam written and sung track, is a fairly stock standard Oasis track, three chords, hand claps and a key change. Nothing about this song is particularly special apart from the 50 second anarchistic sound collage that takes us out of the track. Bass player Andy Bell contributes the bluesy ‘The Nature of Reality’ which is sung by Liam. The track features some gritty guitar over stomping drum beat. Despite not being written by Noel Gallagher, ‘The Nature of Reality’ is the most rock sounding track on the album, borrowing elements from Led Zeppelin more than anything else. Its guitar solo is almost the only one on the album that deviates from the vocal melody of the song.
The album closes with another Liam penned song ‘Soldier On’. Featuring echoed vocals which become positively annoying come the second verse, the song plods along an acoustic guitar and beat quite nicely as Liam sings of the necessity to carry on regardless of the opposition you face. The track is accompanied by organs and, towards the end, an accordion which while giving the song some extra depth, probably isn’t necessary as the song drones on for 2 whole minutes in this fashion.
As an avid and self proclaimed Oasis nut, this album left my disappointed. The lack of epic (or arrogant) guitar solos, tales of self indulgence and rock and roll revelry give the impression that Oasis are almost trying to re-invent themselves, when really there wasn’t a need too. The vocal performance of both Liam and Noel is consistent and powerful (Liam in particular, whose performance on ‘Don’t Believe the Truth’ was fairly average), but as stated, the other key elements of Oasis are missing. However I’m glad that Oasis are still productive and out there releasing new material, but I’m also hoping that Noel has saved all his best songs for his upcoming solo album.
