Oasis
July 2009Alan McGee on Dig Out Your Soul
Turning 48 yesterday, I realised the only Creation band that I still get excited about is Oasis. And who wouldn't? The band contains two world-class songwriters, and two great ones, and their new release Dig Out Your Soul is truly tremendous. It's as if they have re-imagined their discography and made their true follow-up to What's the Story Morning Glory, completing the elusive and perfect rock'n'roll trilogy that began with Definitely Maybe. The music world needs Oasis at this moment, a band with more personality and more amusing quips than any British band for at least 10 years. Throughout their history Oasis have captured the pop zeitgeist (and my personal zeitgeist) as a band that combine the best elements of the Beatles and Sex Pistols to emerge as this generation's Rolling Stones.
"Better than Morning Glory", has become many a critic's meme when reviewing post-Morning Glory Oasis albums, thrown into reviews in a random fashion as a desperate bid to return the band to the halcyon days of old. You know what? Dig Out Your Soul is the best Oasis album since What's the Story Morning Glory. Easy.
The signs were good when I met up with the Gallagher brothers last year in Los Angeles. We discussed music and, curiously, Noel told me how much he liked Glasvegas. I was surprised that he had heard of them at that point. The evening fell into typical Oasis debauchery: hanging out with Brody Dalle and Biffy Clyro and ending up in a dub club in east LA with Oasis participating in a stage invasion. The surreal nature of being Noel Gallagher must be bizarre. Noel, at his best, writes songs about pure escapism, northern ambition and transcending class culture, all in rock'n'roll Technicolor. The question is: "What do you do when you've achieved all your dreams?" You return to your youth and get back to who you were.
Dig Out Your Soul works because Noel has returned to the original inspiration of his youth for his songwriting. Definitely Maybe was about their dreams of rock'n'roll stardom, Morning Glory was about achieving the dream, Be Here Now was the coked-up aftermath, now Dig Out Your Soul is a glance to a psychedelic yesterday, again. For me, the past four post-Morning Glory albums never captured the magic of the first two. Songs from the past five albums had moments of pop reverberations and incredible songwriting, but were never complete statements. With Dig Out Your Soul, the notorious Oasis brothers have found their mojo. It's back, without a doubt.
Musically, it's a return to the grander ambitions and excess of before, with Noel stating: "But I kind of like fancy! I'd like to make an absolutely fucking colossal album. You know? Like literally two orchestras, stuff like that." Dig Out Your Soul is Oasis at their most baroque and Noel's pure pop ambition sits easily with his experimental side. The album oozes with confidence, and great songs.
Maybe it is their the lucky seventh album? The Beatles and the Stones released Revolver and Beggar's Banquet respectively, both were album number seven, and Dig Out Your Soul is on a par of with both in terms of classic songwriting. Or maybe it was his musical peer Paul Weller who inspired Noel to turn his back on Britpop and take a more eclectic direction after Weller's own opus of 22 Dreams? Noel Gallagher has said that Shock of the Lightning was the only song that had "Oasis single status" as the rest is far removed from the sound of Oasis.
I love the decision not to make the album freely available to download, as the Charlatans and Radiohead have. Noel's decision to release the sheet music and lyrics is very Noel; not encouraging free music, but encouraging kids to pick up guitars, learn songs and YouTube them. Or forming a personal army of New York City buskers to perform Dig Out Your Soul - and why not?
These songs are fantastic. From the opening Bag It Up, with the "freaks coming out through the floor", capturing the sound of drug psychosis; the Buffalo Springfield raga glam-stomp of Get Off Your High Horse Lady; the street-fighting vibe of Waiting for the Rapture, the Left Bank psychedelic baroqueness of To Be Where There's Life; the Dear Prudence lift on The Turning - Dig Out Your Soul is the sound of one of Britain's greatest bands at play.
Liam's soulful vocals are utter gems, no longer the one-take hooligan of before, he plays it like a psychedelic Elvis, underpinning the tracks with a commanding presence. Noel's vocal turn on Falling Down is one of the best tracks he has ever sang on. It is subtle, haunting, and full of pure Noel Gallagher magic.
I understand that openly admitting to liking Oasis is inviting confrontation, but you know what? Being an Oasis fan is never having to say I'm sorry. And I'm not. Leave saying sorry to the Coldplay imitators as their era of bedwetter music is over. It's only Glasvegas and Oasis for competition in this country. If you are in a band and are not artistically competing with the creative rock'n'roll genius of Oasis or Glasvegas, it's time to just stop and get off the treadmill. This is how rock'n'roll should be done in the United Kingdom today.
Reproduced by Kind Permission of Alan McGee
Original Article Appeared in The Guardian
