Chasing the long tail of new media
Album: Dig Out Your Soul
Year: 2008
The final Oasis album, 2008’s Dig Out Your Soul, was a bit of a dud. At least to me.
That said, given the inherently volatile nature of the relationship between Noel and Liam Gallagher, it was a dead miracle that they’d lasted as long as they did, and it was also a dead miracle that they were writing and releasing singles as full-throttle as “The Shock of the Lightning.”
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1376: Oasis – “The Shock of the Lightning”
Album: Don’t Believe The Truth
Year: 2005
Chances are, if you remember any Oasis song from the 2000s, it’s going to be this one, as it was their first single since “Go Let It Out” to make any dent on any U.S. charts. Sure, it was the just the Alternative charts, but still. Naturally, in the U.K. it went to number one, because of course it did.
Not just because it got some radio play, but also because it’s catchy as all fuck, a song that Noel Gallagher called their “poppiest thing since ‘Roll With It,'” and, honestly, one of the most straightforward and focused singles they’d ever released.
Album: Don’t Believe The Truth
Year: 2005
A decade after they temporarily took over the world, Oasis put out their sixth studio album, Don’t Believe The Truth, which continued the trends started by Heathen Chemistry. Once again, Noel Gallagher opened up the songwriting to the rest of the band, contributing only five songs, and once again, the album had an absolutely killer single, and a bunch of good-to-great songs.
One of the great songs was a complete rip-off of a song and a band that had heretofore not been considered an influence on Oasis: The Velvet Underground.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1374: Oasis – “Mucky Fingers”
Album: Heathen Chemistry
Year: 2002
Of course, one thing about being more democratic about songwriting credits was that Noel Gallagher ended taking more and more lead vocals on their albums in the back half of their career. While Noel was all over the b-sides from the start, on Definitely Maybe, he had zero lead vocals, and only one each on (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and Be Here Now.
However, on Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, he took two, and on Heathen Chemistry, that was up to three, two of which — “Little by Little” and “She is Love” — were combined for the only double-A side single in Oasis’ discography.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1373: Oasis – “Little by Little”
Album: Heathen Chemistry
Year: 2002
While Standing on the Shoulder of Giants was recorded essentially as a three-piece, the Gallaghers needed a full band to tour behind it, so they recruited guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell from the awesome shoegazers Ride (who will have at least one Certain Song of their own next year) to permanently replace Bonehead and Guigsy for the rest of the band’s run.
In addition, Noel Gallagher decided that he wasn’t going to write every single song, and the songwriting credits on their next album, Heathen Chemistry, were far more democratic. There has been a tiny crack in the window on the previous album, Liam sneaking in his dire “Little James,” but on Heathen Chemistry, the songwriting credits were way more distributed than ever. Noel had six, Liam had three and Archer & Bell had one each. The result was their strongest album since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1372: Oasis – “The Hindu Times”
Album: Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
Year: 2000
Perhaps Oasis most overtly-psychedelic song, chalk full of backwards tapes and featuring a slow, languid, druggy beat, “Who Feels Love?” is my favorite song on Standing on the Shoulder of Giants.
And because it was sequenced third on the record, just after “Go Let it Out,” it also made me pretty fucking excited for the rest of the record. If they could somehow do a whole album with songs as good as this — and keep them under epic length — then that would have been some kind of return.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1371: Oasis – “Who Feels Love?”
Album: Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
Year: 2000
After Be Here Now, things changed in Oasis world.
First off, they took a bit of time off from recording and releasing any new material, with The Masterplan b-sides collection being the final — and excellent! — word from the the period where it looked like they were going to take over the world and have it stay taken over.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1370: Oasis – “Go Let It Out”
Album: Be Here Now
Album: 1997
Nearly a decade after they broke up, the conventional wisdom on Oasis (if one wants to use the word “wisdom” when discussing Oasis) was that their first two albums — and the b-sides comp The Masterplan — were masterpieces (true!); their 2000s albums were all duds (false!) and Be Here Now … well, what about Be Here Now, anyways?
Originally hailed as a third consecutive masterpiece, then over time turning into a punchline for exactly the same reasons it was hailed, it seems like a couple of decades down the line that maybe it’s getting rehabilitated again. I do know that, when people realized I was going deep on Oasis, more than one person mentioned Be Here Now as something they wanted me to write about, meaning that there is still a lot of interest in what will remain a talked-about, most controversial album.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1369: Oasis – “It’s Getting Better (Man!!)”
Album: Be Here Now
Year: 1997
While it was well-received at the time, 1997’s Be Here Now — the last album recorded with the original lineup — eventually became to be seen as a misfire after the twin salvos of Definitely Maybe and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
In one of my all-time favorite disses of any album, Rob Sheffield referred to it in the 2004’s Rolling Stone Record Guide as “a concept album about how long the songs are,” but of course what it really is is a classic cocaine album, the 1990’s equivalent to Aerosmith’s Draw The Line.
[Read more…] about Certain Songs #1368: Oasis – “D’You Know What I Mean?”
Album: The Masterplan
Year: 1995
Of course, it really wasn’t The Beatles. Or, I should say, it really wasn’t just The Beatles. The Gallagher brothers referenced The Beatles as a way to signify their ambition, but Oasis was really more of a synthesis of the whole fucking British Invasion plus key post-British Invasion U.K. bands from the punk and post-punk eras.
But more British Invasion than anything else. They were synthesis of my favorite 60s British bands. I mean, like The Kinks, they had a pair of feuding brothers in the band, one of whom was the principal songwriter. Like The Rolling Stones, they perfected a DGAF rock ‘n’ roll attitude and came across both dumber and tougher than they really were. And like The Who, the lead singer wasn’t the principal songwriter, so the words he was singing weren’t his own, but those of his frenemy, giving him some emotional distance no matter how passionately he belted them.