Review Summary: The best of Britpop
Oasis is (arguably) one of the best bands of all time, which is strange to me. Sure "Definitely maybe" and "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" are fantastic and I'd personally put dig out your soul on my best albums of all time list but aside from that, oasis kind of sucked. Colossal failures like the agonising "be here now" and the dreary "heathens chemistry" reduce their status as one of the greats for me, that never stopped nearly all their singles from being excellent though.
This compilation is quick and to the point, unlike its younger brother "time flies" it doesn't try to give you a full scope of their career. Instead, it plays the greats and lets each song speak for itself. Opening with the incredible "rock n' roll star", the compilation is an all killer no filler overview of the bands best.
In a compilation, songs are the most important feature. So how are the songs? Amazing. Classics like "Wonderwall", "Cigarettes & Alcohol" and "Live Forever" take up most the tracklisting, with their later singles like my personal favourites "The Importance Of Being Idle" and "go let it out" giving great changes to the listing. Only a couple of songs hit a sour note for me, that being "Lyla" and "songbird". Personally, I feel these tracks are plain awful and don't deserve to be placed alongside the 16 other bangers.
One thing I love about the compilation is the inclusion of B-sides from the compilation "the masterplan". Oasis for me has always been a band where the B sides are more interesting than the singles, and this compilation proves Noel Gallagher cares just as much about B sides as he does the popular stuff. "The masterplan" is easily one of the best songs NG has ever written, with the amazing vocal performance backed up by some of the best production of an oasis track ever. Soft songs like "talk tonight" and "half the world away" find themselves snuggled nicely into the tracklisting, and it makes me wish the group but some B sides from later in their career on. I would've loved to hear "just getting older" on here.
Now I've talked about what's on there, what isn't on there? The big one for me is the lack of any "be here now" track, and thank god for that. Imagine if "all around the world" was on here, it would ruin it completely. One addition I wish they added on was "little by little" probably the best single they released up until "dig out your soul" and one of Noels best acoustic tracks.
As some final words, oasis is good. This compilation is good (much better then time flies at least). Just remember going into this, it's oasis. Tracks can wear out fast and Liam's voice can take some getting used to. That's where Get past that, this is a great compilation that should serve as a great jumping-in point to a very influential band. If you haven't heard oasis, listen to this. If you have, maybe put on an album instead.
PS. Stop hating on dig out your soul.
