Rock review: Oasis, Dig Out Your Soul
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Nearly 15 years since they first swaggered and sneered their way into the public consciousness, the Gallaghers still polarise opinion like no other. Mere mention of O*s*s in a blog prompts hundreds of posts, many asking why people are still interested. The answer is simple. As bona fide rock stars, no one else has come along and, as Rio Ferdinand would put it, 'taken up the mantelpiece'. Which leaves them slightly adrift and peerless. They remain, as Alan McGee said, 'too young to be the Stones and too old to be part of that whole Libertines thing'.
Last time out, Liam declared: 'I carry madness, everywhere I go', but of late, the rock'n'roll star seems somewhat tamed and sober, getting up at 6am to go running on Hampstead Heath before dropping off the kids at school. On Definitely Maybe, the young Gallagher sang about strawberries and cream and 'lassaagnnnya'. This month, he revealed his recipe for steaming salmon in soy sauce, and how the gastropub near his second home in Henley-on-Thames is owned by Antony Worrall Thompson. He still peppers most sentences with the F-word, but now also appears on The F Word, joking with Gordon Ramsay.
Noel, meanwhile, seems to be enjoying a second youth, appearing on Radio 1's breakfast show recently, evidently still drunk, having fallen out of a rock bar in Soho only an hour or so previously.
Their last album, 2005's Don't Believe the Truth, marked a long-awaited return to form and the basics that made us take notice all those years ago. This time around, Noel set out to write 'music that had more of a groove', which he has, but occasionally at the expense of the song. Since 2000's Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, Oasis have always come back with a no-nonsense call to arms - 'Go Let it Out', 'The Hindu Times', 'Lyla' - and there's no change here. Lead single 'The Shock of the Lightning' is a propulsive, heads-down rocker, full of those trademark non sequiturs Noel reaches for when there are many things he would like to say but doesn't know how. It's also one of the few obvious singles on the album.
Guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell contribute a song each - the hypnotic 'To be Where There's Life' and the rockier 'The Nature of Reality' - but they do nothing to challenge Noel's title of The Chief when it comes to songwriting. If anyone is going to do that, it's now clear it's Liam, who has come a long way since 'Little James'. The other clear single is his 'I'm Outta Time', a Lennon-esque (shocker) piano-led ballad, showing his new, more reflective side as he reveals how he strives to 'give myself some peace of mind ... you know it's getting hard to fly'.
The Beatles influences are ever-present - from the 'Dear Prudence' guitar at the end of 'The Turning' to the 'Give Peace a Chance' clap and stomp of '(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady' - but they're now borrowing more freely from the canon: the dirty guitar on 'Waiting For the Rapture' from the Doors' 'Five to One', the Who on Liam's 'Ain't Got Nothin" and even, er, Pink Floyd on opener 'Bag it Up'. Overall, they have eschewed the immediacy, bolshiness and classic pop songs for slightly wider ranging influences, from drone to acid rock.
You could say that if Definitely Maybe was their Stone Roses, Dig Out Your Soul is their Second Coming. It won't win them any new fans, but those that believed the truth last time will dig this.
Download 'Bag it Up'; 'I'm Outta Time'; 'The Shock of the Lightning'
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