And if it makes you happy, keep on clapping...

...just remember I'll be by your side. And if you dont let go...its gonna pass you byyyyYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Masterpiece. Absolute fucking masterpiece. Bear in mind, I've had 3 pints of Stella and am an far too euphoric a mood to treat this rationally, considering it's probably gonna be 2 or 3 more years before I hear any more new oasis songs (aside from the b-sides for this album's singles...)

oasis - Don't Believe the Truth (released May 30th 2005)


I've listened to it about 4 or 5 times now, and I *think* I might be capable of figuring out just what I think of it at this point. I'll come back in a few weeks/months and figure out how I really feel, but this is on first blush, so bear with me.

1) Turn up the sun. (written by Andy) Okay, quiet intro...sounds kind of like a Travis song and WHOAH! The heavy guitars kick in and this is fucking oasis, man! Monstrous sound, and some great lyrics: I carry madness, everywhere I go. Over the border...and back to the snow. Apparently written on one of Andy's camping trips up north in Sweden. Wall of sound in full effect, and *this* is how Be Here Now should have sounded. Excellent, excellent track. 9/10

2) Mucky Fingers. (written by Noel) I'd heard bits of this track over the last few months, and it worried me somewhat. It sounds a lot (A LOT!) like "I'm waiting for the man" by the Velvet Underground, who I don't like at all. I just don't. But people also told me it sounded a lot like Dylan during his "subterranean homesick blues" period, which I kind of do like. Kind of really like. So I was conflicted going in. On the first listen, the VU sound did me in, and I only noticed a bit of dylanesque phrasing by Noel (who also sings the tune), but after 3 or 4 listens, it's really grown on me. I'm not going to say it's my favourite on the album, not by a longshot, but I am starting to enjoy it a lot more. 7/10

3) Lyla. (written by Noel). Heard it probably at least 100 times over the last few months since it was first played on Radio Poland. Still an instant oasis classic. Still love it, and it's not close to being the worst song on the album, as Noel's said on more than one occasion. Definitely the best choice for lead single, though.

4) Love like a bomb (written by Liam, with help from Gem). The song on the album that I'm struggling with the most so far. The tune is alright, I guess. The lyrics are naff. "Your love's like a bomb, blowing my mind"? Blecch. Maybe it's a grower, but it hasn't grown on me yet. 5/10

5) The importance of being idle. (written by Noel). Here we go. Very 60's sounding, almost like the Kinks (who I don't really like that much), but this takes it to a whole other level. Noel sings a lot of this in a falsetto, and the tune is essentially about how lazy he is. The chorus: "I don't mind, as long as there's a bed underneath the stars that shine...I'll be fine...just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it!!!!!!!" It's like he wrote the song about me. It's challenging Acquiesce as my second favourite oasis song ever and may end up coming close to "D'you know what I mean?" I love it. 10/10

6) The Meaning of soul. (written by Liam). I'd first heard this song at Glastonbury last year, when it sounded a lot like a 90 second Stooges song. Frantic electric guitars, and just rockin', man. Now, it's based on acoustics and Zak pounding two boxes of Wheaties on his drumkit (I kid you not, two boxes of wheaties). It was intended to sound like something out of Sun records in 1955, but it still sounds like oasis to me. 7/10

7) Guess God thinks I'm Abel. (written by Liam). Wow. An acoustic strummer that explodes in the last ten seconds. It sounds to me like Liam wrote this about Noel (which would explain the Abel reference), and if he did, it's a great song. If he didn't, it's a great song. It's just a fucking great song. Best song Liam's written so far, by a country mile. 9/10

8) Part of the queue. (written by Noel). Apparently this song apes "Golden brown" by the Stranglers, but I've never heard it so I can't say. What I can say is that Noel sings this one, in 3/4 time, and was apparently written about how he's fed up with living in London. 10 years ago, he said he loved London, but he's gotten sick with people being idiots in grocery stores...or so he says in interviews, anyway. Me, I think \he's just getting older. 8.5/10

9) Keep the dream alive (written by Andy). I can't figure out this song to save my life. I either love it or hate it and I can't determine what it is. It's obviously intended to be a classic oasis flag-waver, a la Some might say or Go let it out, but it still hasn't quite connected with me yet. Liam sings it great, but...I dunno. 6.5/10

10) A Bell will ring. (written by Gem). The second of the two songs that were premiered at Glastonbury last year. I didn't get it at all then, but now it might be one of my 3 or 4 favourites on the album. Gem actually writes lyrics that (sort of) make sense for once (as opposed to hung in a bad place and eyeball tickler), which certainly helps. Liam sings the first verse accompanied solely by an electric guitar and tambourine (I think), and the rest come crashing in at the end of the chorus. The drums and bass (and guitar, to a certain extent) make it sound a lot like a lost track from the Beatles 'Revolver' period, but for once, an oasis Beatles ripoff is a very good thing. Apparently Gem had had this song around for years and it took Noel to come up with the drum beat and bassline to convince him to record it, and I'm very glad he did. 9/10

11) Let there be love (written by Noel). I first heard this song (or a variation thereof) in mid-2000, when I got the bootleg of the Standing on the shoulder of giants demos. Then, it was just Noel singing over an acoustic guitar, with pretty blah lyrics. So when I heard it was going to be on the album, and not only on the album, but the album closer, I groaned. But then I heard 1) The instrumentation is very different 2) Noel rewrote nearly all the lyrics save for "let there be love" and most importantly 3) Liam and Noel duet on it. Classic flag-waver in the stop crying your heart out or wonderwall vein. An instant classic. The constrast between Liam and Noel's parts is absolutely letter-perfect. Exactly how I wanted it to sound. Now do the same thing with 'solve my mystery', Noel. 9.5/10

Not gonna add too much here, since I've only listened to it a few times at this point, but suffice it to say I'm really happy with how it turned out, and *really* glad I waited to get it and not download it in the end. Walking back to the office at lunch across the river in the glorious sun, and lying on the grass with it on my headphones for a full hour...what a great moment. Don't think the smile left my face all afternoon. And in the words of a certain Oxfordian bass player/ex-Ride guitarist: come on, turn up the sun...turn it up for everyone. Love one another. 9.45/10 (Can't honestly say it's better than Definitely Maybe...yet)

Talk of better days that are yet to come...

Last one...tomorrow is the big day. Etcetera.

oasis - Heathen Chemistry (released July 1st, 2002)



Well, this is the most recent oasis album, and the one that I've probably played more than any of the others.

Some background: this album leaked to the internet in early April 2002. You'll notice that the release date was July 2002. Meaning of course, that it was available a full 3 months before the CD hit the shops. Me, I thought about holding off downloading it until the release day...I thought about it for about 30 seconds, and went right into it. Which in the end was a big mistake, as when I actually bought the CD, it was a...well, not disappointment, but it wasn't anything exciting. They'd remixed two of the tracks and changed the running order slightly, but they were the same songs I'd had since April, so the release day wasn't really a big deal. That said, the songs were still pretty good.

1) The Hindu Times. They broke this and Hung in a bad place out for the '10 years of Noize and confusion' tour at the end of 2001. At the time, it just had one verse that was repeated twice, a la Roll with it. They had intended to release it as a single for these shows, but Noel pulled it back at the last minute because he wasn't satisfied with it. He then changed the drumbeat and added a second verse and there you are. Instant oasis classic. Apparently when Gem heard Noel's demo, he said 'we should make this sound like the ultimate oasis song'...and while it isn't exactly that, it does work as the lead single off the album. Oh yeah, the boys are back in town. 9/10

2) Force of Nature. Noel's first lead vocal on the album. I first heard this song in 2001 (or even earlier), as it was written for the Jude Law film 'Love, Honour and Obey', and appears over the closing credits. When it was announced that it would be on Heathen Chemistry, the conventional wisdom was that Liam *must* be singing it, otherwise it wasn't album-worthy. Well, he wasn't and it still ended up on the album. Pretty average pub-rocker...but it always sounded great live. Especially when they put it as the first encore song. The band would walk off and around halfway through the break, they'd put the drumloop on and the band would walk back out, one by one, with Noel coming on last, picking up his guitar, walking to the mic..."1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4!" Rock'n roll. 7/10

3) Hung in a bad place. Gem's first oasis song, and one of the two they chose to play live on the noize and confusion tour. Pretty much apes the chords to 'no fun' by the stooges, and with a bunch of gibberish lyrics over the top. "hasta ya manana, yer on yer own banana-skin feet now..." What? 7/10

4) Stop crying your heart out. I thought that if there ever was an oasis song that would have the same impact in america that wonderwall and don't look back in anger did, this would be it. It did alright in Canada, but sunk like a stone in the USA. Shows what I know. One of the classic flag-wavers that Noel used to be capable of tossing off in 10 minutes, it ended up being used repeatedly as the theme for England's failure at the world cup in 2002...oh, and Liam can't sing this live to save his life. 9/10

5) Songbird. Liam went from 'little james' to this? Wow. A little acoustic number that's so simple, it's beautiful. My favourite song to play on the guitar, mainly because it's just 2 (and a half) chords. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. What's funny is that when you hear the demo, it's basically a stone-cold ripoff of "I should have known better", complete with harmonica. They couldn't quite get it right, so Noel told the band to fuck off to the pub for a bit, took all the instrumentation off, save for an acoustic guitar, piano and keyboard...and volia, Liam's first classic. 8.5/10

6) Little by little. Noel's second lead vocal, and my favourite song on the album. I remember the night the album leaked, that the cymbals right before "you know I didn't mean..." straight through to the end, convinced me that Noel still had it. Unfortunately, this was one of the two songs that they remixed after the leak, and for me, they ruined it by mixing down the organ at the beginning. Still great, though. 9/10

7) A quick peep. A minute-long instrumental, based around a riff that Andy Bell came up with on the Brotherly love tour in 2001. Inconsequential. 3/10

8) (Probably) All in the mind. When the rain comes.....boy, they could've at least tried to hide the bassline from the beatles 'rain'...total ripoff. 4/10

9) She is love. For some reason, this was released as a double A-side with Little by little, and god knows why. It's basically the same song as songbird, but with Noel singing. And it's not as good. Would've been a nice b-side, but it doesn't belong on the album. 4/10

10) Born on a different cloud. Liam's second effort here. And again, the leap from writing 'Little James' to this, is staggering. Admittedly, the lyrics are ripping off John Lennon, but it still works for what it is. (Example: It's no surprise to me
that yer classless, clever and free.) Pretty dark, dense instrumentation...doesn't really sound like anything oasis has done before...until they add the NANANANAs at the end. Sigh. 7.5/10

11) Better man. Liam's third song. Basically just a chugging, bluesy song. Not anything particularly important about it. 5.5/10

Bonus track: The Cage. A slow, brooding instrumental that kicks in about 30 minutes of silence after Better man. Meh. 4/10

All in all, get back to me in 5 years when this isn't the new one anymore and I might be a lot harder on it, a la Standing on the shoulder of giants (which at the time, I was convinced was the best album ever.) Right now, if I'm in the mood to play an oasis album, this is the one that gets picked more often that not. I've actually seen all 8 of the songs from this album that they've played live, so maybe that's why I like it so much, as all of the songs *did* work live, and sounded better live than they did on the album. (Well, except for stop crying your heart out, anyway.) Whether that was due to the production of the album, or just the songs themselves, I dunno. 8/10

But if nothing else, the way I first heard this album convinced me that for the next one, I wouldn't download it/listen to it until I had the CD in my hands. That day is tomorrow, and I've managed to hold off. For me, someone who has absolutely no self-restraint whatsoever, this is actually a big accomplishment. And hopefully "Don't believe the truth" will live up to my expectations. Of course, even if it doesn't, I'll still be calling it the best album ever sometime tomorrow afternoon.

To sum up:

Definitely Maybe: 9.5/10
(What's the story) Morning Glory?: 7/10
Be Here Now: 7/10
The Masterplan: 9/10
Standing on the shoulder of giants: 7/10
Heathen Chemistry: 8/10
Don't Believe the truth: ?/10

Stay madferit, knobheads.