Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

So last night Noel Gallagher decided he couldn't live with Liam Gallagher anymore let alone tour with his little brother 24/7. I have to give Noel credit I'm stunned he made it past year one let alone nearly twenty. I should say at this point, I suspect this break up to last all of three months at the very most, but seeing as I missed out on a career retrospective on Michael Jackson, I felt I'd do one on Oasis, to say what they really mean to Rock and Roll. It seems the dominos are starting to fall the King of Pop is dead, now the Kings of Retrospective lad rock are long gone. So in a market overstocked on nostalgia its nice to say goodbye rather than hello. I should point out at the outset that I've never seen Oasis live, they pulled out of Chelmsford last weekend so I "missed out", I've heard mixed reviews but I'll stay away from their live reputation. Instead I'm gonna look back over the albums, so lets get to it.

What can be said that hasn't already been said about this record? In fact this record finished in my top ten albums of the 90s so I've written at lenght about it before. Quite simply this is Oasis' best album, and it's the closest they've come to a truly great record. The emotional resonance and importance of Definitely Maybe doesn't really translate abroad especially in the States, where Oasis are looked down upon for there obvious musical failings, but here in the UK, it's their magnus opus. It's not really about the music, it's about the dream, it's about everyday life, and it's about escapism. The Gallagher's came from humble roots, council estates in Manchester, and they preached as simple dream, they wanted to be Rock and Roll Stars and by god they did it. Whether it was the social commentary of Cigarrettes and Alcohol or silly singalongs of Supersonic, this was an album rooted around the depressing and the mundane but it turned those images on their heads, and offered us and escape route. This was an album that told you you could escape the monotany of the city and escape to the sunshine, this was an album that told you you could quit the nine to five and become and Rock and Roll Star, and best of all this is an album that didn't care how your garden grows this album promised us that we could Live Forever. It was thrilling, it was immediate, my god it was simple but most of all it was absolutely vital.

So we all knew they couldn't possible top Definitely Maybe and the Gallaghers never really showed any signs that they had the creativity and invention of the Beatles or Radiohead, no this was a band who knew what they did best, and were going to stick to it. They were going to write big simple thrilling pop songs, so irresistable that you couldn't help but sing them at the top of your lungs. (What's The Story) Morning Glory? was ultimately the best we could now hope for from Oasis, a record where the bit hits out weighed the misses. This record is rather take it or leave it for that reason, for many fans it's the holy bible, but for most people it's a record that is rarely listened to in full. Noel himself is aware of this, he's often spoke about how embarssed he is looking back at Roll With It and hopefully he's equally ashamed of the cringe inducingly morose She's Electric. However for every track that makes your eyes roll there was a track that forced you to throw your arms around your mates and sing along; Wonderwall, Don't Look Back In Anger, Morning Glory, Hello, What's The Story and Some Might Say. This was a record made for the festivals, and it was their last real artistic high point.

Oh dear oh dear, it was time for Oasis to attempt to spread their creative wings, and we all knew this wasn't going to be pretty, but we all hoped we'd get some decent tunes out of it. Well lets start with the experimentation, this of course meant not coming up with something knew but more thoroughly mining their influences so the groove laden tracks of the Stone Roses and the lyrical abstraction of The Beatles, were thoroughly cut, copied and pasted into "new" Oasis tracks. The results were predictably cringe inducing. First of all does anybody want to hear nine minute Oasis tracks? Of course not, Metallica with all their technical brilliance, struggle to fill nine minutes, let alone, these chord bashing retro rockers. Secondly the lyrics were horrible, Noel is a gifted everyman writter, he's Paul McCartney, and that's fine, unfortunately he's not John Lennon too, that fact became painfully obvious on this record. Do You Know What I Mean was the worst offender a dirge of a seven minute single, with such a basic hook that hits you over the head with it's bluntness, some recycled Roses grooves and some horrible lyrics ("Questions are the answers you might need...I'm not good looking but I'm someone's child"). Everything on this record felt old, overly long, desperate and dated, with one exception My Big Mouth one big ballsy track that rocked your socks, shame their weren't four more of it's ilk and this record might actually be tolerable.

Now this was exactly what we needed after Be Here Now, a collection of B sides to remind us why we loved Oasis in the first place. Make no mistakes this is a terrible album, most of this record is bogged down in substandard filler, but it has such glorious highs, this album had tracks that would live forever. The problem with Be Here Now was that while it wasn't completely horrible, it was so bland, mediocre and boring that it was in many ways less interesting than an old fashion stinker. The Masterplan on the other hand was a loaded with awful tracks but it gave the world what we'd missed on Be Here Now those short sharp burst of pop writting brilliance. There was Aquisence, Fade Away, Talk Tonight & of course the lovely emotional Half The World Away, this was Oasis doing what they did best big brilliant pop singles. Best of all there was one last stroke of glorious everyman songwritting left; the truly inspired and brilliant title track. The perfect way to cap a mostly bad collection of songs that reminded us why we loved Oasis in the first place.

So after a brief career retrospective in the form of The Masterplan we were hurled back down to earth with a reminder of where Oasis were in real time. Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants showed a band breft of ideas and creatively bankrupt. They tried to push the envelope, but they weren't really envelope pushers, Oasis are and always will be a classic hitmaking pop band, but they could never come to terms with this fact, and Standing On The ShoulderOf Giants was the first really sign that Oasis were going to slowly fade away rather than glorious burn out. They tried darker more drawn out themes, with more psychodelic soundscapes but it just failed miserably. Gas Panic! showed Oasis struggling against the tide, trying to move forward and trying to sound vital but instead it saw them once again sounding like followers and dad rockers rather than revolutionaries. Ironically it was the one shameless retro rock moment Fuckin' In The Bushes that provided the albums greatest thrill and most memorable thrill but everything else fell flat, highlighted by the god awful Who Feels Love? and worst of all the Liam penned Little James. A complete and utter musical failure, a sign that Oasis and the 21st Century were not compatible.

So depending on your point of view this was either a return to midly bad form or it was Oasis's worst album yet. I tend to fall in the former catagory. This record is completely and utterly awful and has very few redeeming features. It's dad rock with cringe inducing lyrics, boring guitar work, and about as much creativity as a Quo record. I can see why many would dispise this record, as the ultimate amalgamation of everything awful that lerks within Oasis. A lump of forgetable retro rock, with it's feet firmly in the past devoid of any spark or any immediacy. However on the other hand, it was a return to the holding pattern, sure fire hits surrounded by abysmal filler. Hindu Times was embarssing lets face it, but it shot to number one, with it's simple hook that people could relate to and enjoy, no matter how primitive it's thrills. Then there was Stop Crying Your Heart Out, Little By Little and Songbird, the big ballsy singalong ballads that fans had been crying out for. So it maybe an awful album, but it gives us the kind of fond memories that were so non existant on Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants.

So the album titles had reached a new low but the perhaps Oasis had found a new high. Don't Believe The Truth had finally seen Oasis become what they'd always threaten to be; The UK's answer to AC/DC. This was proudly lame, retro rock. This was your five out of ten palatable album with a handful of big hits. This record did nothing to restore Oasis's relevance, they still felt like an aging antique who returned every so often to make us smile and make us cringe in equal measure. This record did have one thing, that the previous three albums had lacked; vigour. Oasis felt hungry, they still lacked creativity but they sounded like a band who wanted to matter again. This can perhaps be attributed to Noel spreading the song writting credits around. On Mucky Fingers Noel sounded like a pissed off middle aged man who was proud to be old school, Importance Of Being Idle was a smash hit so catchy it actually latches onto your brain and drains your IQ and of course Let There Be Love was a horrible embarssement, but it couldn't all be good news. As Lyla proved, they were still lame, they were still irrelevant, but they were having fun and trying hard and really that's the best we could have hoped for.

So after five awful albums, remarkably, Oasis, if this is to be their last album have gone out on a high. Dig Out Your Soul isn't a classic by any means but it took all that progressive effort on Don't Believe The Truth and channelled it into some intriguing musical moments. Unfortunately the cost for this new found relevance was a reduction in record sales. Dig Out Your Soul clearly lacked the huge hit potential of the previous two offerings but it actually had the kind of tracks that in a few years time you can come back to and geniunely enjoy for their own musical merits. Perhaps most surprsingly having given Oasis arguably their worst ever track Little James on Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, eight years later Liam would pen the gorgeous sparse ballad I'm Outta Time, his finest songwritting moment and the albums undoubted highlight. It still feels retro, but it's honest and soulful, two qualities desperately lacking on Oasis for more than a decade. Not to be completely out done, Noel and the rest of the rhythem second were laying down some slick grooves on this record culminating in the excellent single Falling Down. However Dig Out Your Soul still bares the weaknesses of every other Oasis album, but if this is to be the last Oasis album, it's a good note to end on. It shows them finally managing to incorperate their influences in a subtle and dare I say creative way. So after struggling for the best part of decade they'd finally arrived at a state of happy mediocrity.