Oasis Dig Out Your Soul Review
New Album from Liam and Noel Gallagher, Britpop’s Leading Bad Boys
Nov 19, 2008
During the height of the Britpop movement, Oasis were to the 90’s what their heroes The Beatles were to the 60’s and the 70’s. Now a decade later, the band releases its 7th album, the more textured Dig Out Your Soul.
The major difference between Oasis and The Beatles (despite the obvious musical dominance and longevity of the latter) is that The Beatles, unlike Oasis, experimented with music and lyrics, pushing the limits of popular music with each album and in the process influenced the next four decades of popular music.
Oasis, on the other hand, made one great album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory that seemed to be crushed under its own weight. The haven’t reached the heights of that album again and instead continue to plod out the same rehashed album every few years yet continue to declare it the best thing they’ve ever done.
Dig Out Your Soul
“I like my audience. They paid for my swimming pool. I'm not f***ing challenging anybody," Noel Gallagher declared to Details magazine. Oasis do not experiment, they do not push the envelop or promote peace, love and harmony. Instead they cut up everyone and leave all the experimentation and world peace stuff to Radiohead and U2, while they play straightforward rock and roll.
If Oasis had enough good material to back up their bad reputation, enough hits to support their haughty attitudes and enough relevance for anyone to still care who they currently badmouth it would be one thing, but unfortunately this isn’t the case.
For anyone who missed Oasis’s last albums, just spin Dig Out Your Soul and pretend it is 2005 or 2003 as this album offers up the same ideas and sounds as their two previous albums. The major difference with this disc is the fuller, fleshier sound they have added to tracks, especially the opening track “Bag it Up” and “The Turning”.
Waiting for the Rapture
“Waiting for the Rapture”, driven by a gnarly repetitious riff which eventually cranks into a hard driving rocker, comes nicely balanced with a floating vocal that strays somewhat from the Oasis formula, however, it still sounds like anything they’ve done before and hardly stands out from the pack of tracks on this album.
Lead single “Shock of the Lightening” struck the top ten in the UK upon initial release, yet just as lightening rarely strikes twice; the track quickly disappeared after a few weeks. “I’m Outta Time” a psychedelic ode to the Beatles (every album needs at least one), muses on yesteryear with deep ponderous lyrics like “We gotta keep on keeping on”. Musically, while it’s no “Wonderwall”, the song does have a pretty musical arrangement and despite the mediocrity that passes for deep thoughts, it works better than most of the tracks.
Oasis Falling Down
“Falling Down” a mid-tempo rocker sounds just like anything from former albums “The Heathen Chemistry” or “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants”. However, skip the original and check out the brilliant remix by The Chemical Brothers. Adding spinning electronics and buzzing bleeps livens up the old tricks with more old tricks. This album highlight sounds exactly like a collaboration between The Chemical Brothers and Oasis should sound, and echoes better for sounding familiar.
For the remaining tracks, Oasis continue to nod their heads to their idols The Beatles, adding a sitar on “To Be Where There is Life”, a psychedelic spin and Lennon-sounding vocals on “Soldier On” and tracks sprinkled with interpretative lyrics as found on “The Nature of Reality”, but as a whole, this album is Oasis through and through.
While predictability has its draws, Dig Out Your Soul remains a solid affair packed with enough tunes to tide over fans for a couple of years until the Gallagher brothers record another similar sounding album.
Dig Out Your Soul is available now.
