Travelling A Well Worn Path

The release of a new Oasis album these days doesn't seem to be the media circus that it was, say, ten years ago. Whilst the first two albums: Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory? were released to critical and public acclaim, although critical acclaim followed public opinion somewhat belatedly in the case of the second album, those that have followed (five studio albums including this one) have seen little in the way of excitable headlines shouting at you from every street corner.

The reviews last weekend reflected this lack of enthusiasm varying from two stars in the Independent to four stars in the Sunday Times. The reviews it seems not necessarily reflecting the quality of the music on offer but more the jaded attitude towards a band that have long forgotten the need to reinvent themselves musically at every opportunity.

It's tempting to compare and contrast the careers of Oasis Britpop nemesis Blur. Whilst Damon Albarn has become something of a renaissance man, Gorillaz, Monkey etc, and the albums released under the brand name Blur have shown a band continually experimenting until they called it, temporarily we are told, a day - Oasis are like your local KFC, constantly offering the same basic product but occasionally throwing in something extra, a musical equivalent of coleslaw or chilli flavoured baked beans.

I like Oasis the band. I don't need all the media hoopla surrounding them, I don't read tabloids and the Times recent interview with Liam Gallagher merely illustrated a frustration within the band that the 'serious' newspapers haven't always seen beyond the Beatles 'obsession'. The first two albums should feature in any list of the U.K's best rock albums of the past thirty-five years, after that you'd be struggling to make a decent album from all the tracks off the three studio albums that followed - in my opinion it's no coincidence that the rot started when the original line-up ceased to exist, perhaps the chemistry between the replacements isn't quite there.

Anyway what about the new album, how good, bad or indifferent is it? Well you have to, in the words of George Michael, 'Listen without prejudice.' If you can do that I think the album has six tracks out of the eleven that compare with anything the band have recorded post (What's The Story) Morning Glory? And I'd go further to say that there are two tracks: Bag It Up and Shock of The Lightning that wouldn't be out of place on the first two albums. There's no doubt that the musical influences (Beatles, Weller, Small Faces) loom large throughout the album, the drum sound of Bag It Up is straight from I am The Walrus, there's even a John Lennon sample on Liam's track I'm Outta Time, which I have to say is, by any standards, a quite beautiful love song despite Liam's lyrical limitations.

Despite, or perhaps in spite of, the musical references there hasn't been much musical development over the past eleven years since Be Here Now. Whilst The Beatles progressed on every recording, it was only a year between the Yeah Yeah Yeah chorus of She Loves You and the feedback that opens I Feel Fine, Oasis are seemingly reluctant to push themselves. The Turning illustrates the point perfectly, there's undoubtedly more depth to the production and some harmonies that are great but Noel Gallagher still can't get away from the old habit of 'when you have something good keep repeating it', it's the musical equivalent of a Harry and Paul sketch. Waiting For The Rapture references Lennon, Weller and Steve Marriott in the same track, there's even a touch of the Hello Goodbye coda have way through - Noel Gallagher apparently wanted to make an album that involved throwing the kitchen sink at it, I think this was the track that followed a phone call to B & Q.

High Horse Lady is different, not better or worse, different and it works. To Be Where There's Life will have any Beatles aficionado thinking 'Haven't I heard that somewhere before?', you haven't heard it on a Beatles album but you've heard a similar sound on the last Paul Weller album - perhaps just as there are only four original jokes there are actually only four original songs and everything since Mozart died is a variation. The thing about this track is that it wasn't written by either Noel or Liam but by the bands bass player Gem Archer - perhaps in the same way that little brothers go through their older brothers record collection bass guitarists go through the lead guitarists album collection. The track just plods along for four and a half minutes before putting itself out of its misery.

Falling Down is the probably the third best track on the album, strings, thumping bass, middle east references in the music and a weird reference to William Rees Mogg's 'Butterfly' quote from the sixties. Musically this is where the whole album should be.

Ain't Got Nothing is possibly the least stereotypical Oasis track on the album, the sound isn't reminiscent of any other group and this is the one track on the album where you can actually hear the band stretching themselves musically - if not lyrically.

The Nature of Reality was written by Andy Bell the other guitarist in the band and its recording was a callous waste of the planets resources, quite how Noel Gallagher let this get beyond the rehearsal rooms is anybody's guess - it is quite possibly the worst song Oasis have ever recorded.

The album closes with Soldier On another track written by Liam and is so lazy in every aspect that it pushes The Nature of Reality quite hard for the honour of worst song recorded by the band. It's only saving grace is Noel's guitar.

So there you have it. If this album had been released say, thirty years ago, on vinyl I can guarantee that Side Two would never get played. The self styled 'Best F**king Band In The World' aren't going to hit the heights of the first two albums and perhaps we are greedy for hoping they would, in the meantime thank Cliff for the invention of the mp3 player and the skip facility on the CD player, that way we, the listener, can at least separate the good from the grotesque. It just seems a shame that in a year when Paul Weller and Metallica have both shown that you can continually push the envleope musically Oasis have decided to leave the envelope in the stationery cupboard.