Still digging

Oasis' return to the spotlight, 'Dig Out Your Soul' covers too many musical genres to create a cohesive record

By: Dan Kaplan

Posted: 10/7/08

Artist: Oasis
Album: Dig Out Your Soul
Sounds Like: An imitation of the Beatles, with mixed results.
65 decibels out of 100

Oasis is a name from the past. Anyone remember?

That Britpop band out of Manchester, England? The one with the two fighting brothers who had those two huge hits in the mid-1990s?

"Wonderwall?"

"Champagne Supernova?"

Ring any bells?

Most likely not, because ever since then one could argue that Oasis has been trying to be forgotten.

A departure from its stellar pop-rock roots led the group to ill-fated ventures with psychedelia. The result: The band's highest chart position since then came in 2000, when "Go Let It Out" hit No. 14 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.

In many ways, Oasis' new album, "Dig Out Your Soul," plays sort of like an autobiography of the band's career.

There are flashes of the Gallagher brothers' early brilliance, which shot albums like "Definitely Maybe" and "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?" to the top of the charts.

Then there are also moments that will make listeners question exactly what the band was thinking while recording.

The biggest problem with "Dig Out Your Soul" is that the album has absolutely no sense of flow. Fist-pumping rock 'n roll anthems are sandwiched between ballads and psychedelic jam sessions.

Such combinations make otherwise enjoyable songs irritating, and the album becomes very difficult to listen to in its entirety. This lack of cohesiveness becomes especially disappointing when you consider the success of the songs as individual compositions.

The album's first two tracks, "Bag It Up" and "The Turning," combine for perhaps the band's best album opening punch ever.

"Bag It Up" builds a grooving stomp-rhythm, showcasing vocalist Liam Gallagher at his most confident in years. "The Turning" simply rocks harder than anything in the band's catalogue from the past 10 years.

Later tracks see the band treading further into Beatles territory than ever before.

In theory, this should be a welcomed experiment; the Gallagher brothers' affinity for all things Lennon-McCartney has never been a secret - Liam even once went so far as to claim he was John Lennon reincarnated.

The trouble is that Oasis is trying to do later Beatles, imitating the group during its most experimental phase. Sometimes the songs succeed: The bass line on "To Be Where There's Life," for example, would make Paul McCartney weep.

But more often than not the band sounds too derivative for its own good. "The Nature of Reality" - with its opening riff nicked from the Beatles' classic "Helter Skelter" - proves a sore example of the latter, easily one of Oasis' worst songs to date.

With four out of five permanent band members contributing during the album's songwriting process, it's easy to see why "Dig Out Your Soul" sounds so uneven. In the band's glory days, lead guitarist Noel Gallagher wrote every song, including all of the b-sides.

Here, there are almost as many songs not penned by Noel (five) as by him (six). With most bands, the added range of influences from multiple songwriters would be a huge asset. With Oasis, it's just a downer.

Fortunately, Noel's tunes continue to provide the band's shining moments.

The lead single, "The Shock of the Lightning," is a triumphant rocker that could easily have come off like "Definitely Maybe." Nearly a decade after he began to shy away from the band's straightforward pop sound, "Falling Down" sees Gallagher finally striking the right blend between catchy and experimental in his songwriting.

A few more of his songs, and the album might have come out stronger. But as it stands, Oasis will have to keep digging.

sdkaplan@syr.edu