Film Review

09 January 2009 02:15 BST

Oasis: Dig Out Your Soul

Big Brother Recordings, out now.

In a nutshell...

Poise and progression gives way to predictable plodding

What's it all about?

What's an Oasis album ever all about? Definitely Maybe was about sniffing it in a tissue and being friends with Mr Soft, (What's The Story) Morning Glory was about slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball and Be Here Now... well, due to the fact he had his head stuck in a vat of South America's finest marching powder for most of the time it took to make it, it's unlikely even it's author knows what the hell its about.

Dig Your Own Soul seems to see Liam Gallagher getting uncharacteristically introspective (2If I'm to fall/Would you be there to applaud?/Or would you hide behind them all?"), Andy Bell getting existential on our asses ("Belief does not existence make/It's only in your mind"), Gem Archer getting apocalyptic ("TV just closed down/There's nothing on the news now") and Noel Gallagher getting us wondering if he’s back on the ching ("Shine a light on your fire when you come on in/I got my heebie-jeebies in a hidden bag").

Who's it by?

Given that inthenews's dad knows who Oasis are, and his favourite record is Land Of My Fathers by the Welsh Guards Band, if you're reading this and you're not familiar with the Gallagher brothers, it's probably worth our while asking what planet you're from and if your race fancy buying out a bank or two while you're here.

Aside from the increasingly serene Liam and the increasingly sociable Noel, Dig Out Your Soul's main players are Archer (formerly of Heavy Stereo) on guitar and Bell (previously of Ride) on bass. The Spinal Tap-like spell over the Oasis drummers stool continues, with Chris Sharrock replacing Zak Starkey to become the band's fourth drummer, although he doesn't actually appear on the album...

As on the last Oasis album, Don't Believe The Truth, Noel has again relaxed his previously despotic grip on his bands output, allowing Archer, Bell and Liam to add their names to the songwriting credits.

As an example...

"If I'm to fall/Would you be there to applaud/Or would you hide behind them all." – I'm Outta Time

"Tell the world that you love them in a melody/Send my old piano and a telegram/Gotta get me a doctor with a remedy/I'm gonna talk a walk with the monkey man". – Bag It Up

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

As with all of Oasis's post-Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants albums, the reception Dig Out Your Soul receives from fans and critics alike will be as predictable as Johnny Borrell describing Razorlight's new album as being as essential to the existence of humankind as the predominance of matter over antimatter in the present universe. Or something.

Critics will either hail it as the band's finest album since Definitely Maybe (or [What's The Story] Morning Glory if they're less prone to hyperbole) or slam it as yet another mediocre attempt by Noel to recapture the band's glory days. A few loose cannons will say it sidesteps both these labels by striving for a new sound rather than attempting to conjure up the pomp and swagger of the past.

Sales-wise, regardless of reviews, Dig Out Your Soul will strut to the upper reaches of every album chart from Britain to Bolivia where it will remain until round about the release of the album's second single, where we'll all promptly forget about it and start wondering when Oasis will start making albums as good as Be Here Now again.

What the others say

"Neither masterpiece nor catastrophe, more experimental than Noel would allow but no one's idea of adventurous, a lot of Dig Out Your Soul sounds like hard work, and not in the latter-day Scott Walker sense of unorthodox or avant garde. Perhaps that's fitting." – Alexis Petridis, The Guardian

"Dig Out Your Soul is more charismatic and better crafted than anything Oasis have done in a long while. Ironically, however, it's when the band step away from their staple sound and try something a little more interesting that they fire on all (or at least most) cylinders." – Chris Baynes, PopMatters

So is it any good?

Before we get started, inthenews will confess that, as a 15 year-old whose favourite record was 2 Unlimited's No Limits, the emergence of Oasis in all their bolshy, malevolent glory was, as it was for millions of others, the kind of bolt-of-lightning, slap-in-the-chops, epiphany-on-a-plate moment that usually only occur in John Hughes flicks. We're such disciples that we're still waiting for the critical evaluation of that lost classic, Be Here Now.

As such, the pounding beat and crunchy, menacing guitar of Dig Out Your Soul's opener Bag It Up is one of the more welcoming sounds 2008 has offered thus far. It's the kind of swaggering stompalong that Oasis make seem easy – it has you wanting to stride down the high street in a peacock suit quicker than you can say 'madferrit'.

The Turning and Waiting For The Rapture demonstrate the influence that Noel's love of obscure 60s psychedelic swamp rock has had, while you've already heard The Shock Of The Lightning – as Oasis comeback singles go it pisses all over Lyla but doesn't quite reach the heights of Go Let It Out. It does contain a bitchin' drum solo though. Yes, you read that right – a drum solo.

Following the Liam-penned I'm Outta Time, simultaneously the Oasis frontman at his most tender and revealing and at his most Lennon-aping, you begin to dare speculate as to whether this is the definitive third Oasis album that you've been waiting for... and that's exactly when Dig Out Your Soul begins to dig out your heart.

(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady is a nodding off-paced blues doodle with Noel bellowing like a bison stuck in the mud through a vocoder, the efforts of the 'other two' proves that democracy in bands works as well as Lampard and Gerrard playing together and Falling Down makes you tear your hair out at Noel's insistence on singing on so many of his songs when he has The Best Rock 'n' Roll Singer of His Generation in his band?

The final track is a one-paced, dreary trudge that sees Liam singing "Don't be long/Soldier on" in a tone that suggests even he, self-declared biggest fan of his own band, is slowly losing the faith. This isn't what Oasis were all about, is it? Bring on that belated tenth anniversary edition of Be Here Now...

5/10

Kelvin Goodson

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