review: oasis – dig out your soul

Broken ribs, ill-advised pudding-bowl haircuts and one monster of a single mark the return of Britain’s best loved house husbands of pub rock. But does it really feel like they’ve been away? What with 2007’s best-of, Radio 1’s unwavering policy of murdering singles lifted from Heathen Chemistry and Don’t Believe the Truth through over exposure and Noel’s regular phone-in slot on Russell Brand’s Saturday night show, the band’s ubiquity has taken some of the shine of excitement off this release. Indeed, given the myriad innovative directions Indie and Rock music have moved in during recent years, are Oasis a band you can get still get excited about?

Opening track Bag It Up with its Paul Weller-ish guitar riffs, marching beat, mid-verse modulations and loud/quiet dynamics certainly suggests so. Noel’s promises of grove driven songs and kitchen-sink thrown in production are realised to solid effect. Next up some tasteful bass chords (you read correctly) from Andy Bell introduce The Turning before a piano pinched straight from Rubber Soul’s ‘You Won’t See Me’ let’s you know that the fab four are still very much at the forefront of the bands influences.

Zak Starkey pays homage to his dad throughout the record but none more noticeably than on Falling Down, on which the instantly recognisable tumbling drums from Tomorrow Never Knows feature heavily. As always the influences don’t end there: first single Shock of the Lightning is evocative of early Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club (as is the chorus in The Turning), string arrangements throughout the album are more Zeppelin than Beatles and the ghost of Marc Bolan stomps glam rhythms on Waiting for the Rapture.

Of Liam’s three songs, I’m Outta Time is the weakest. Here we find him in reflective latter-day Lennon mode, plonking out simple piano chords beneath a forgettable melody. On the other hand he’s responsible for one of the albums stand-out songs; Aint Got Nothin, a syncopated rocker of surprising energy and brevity which wouldn’t sound out of place on a White Stripes’ record.

Gem and Andy contribute one song each; the former a steady, droning slice of psychedelia and the latter a stop-start stomper which turns out to be another surprise highlight. Lyrically it’s all very familiar territory: lazy rhyming couplets and plagiary but then what did you expect?

Never the less, despite the bands long standing flaws, Dig Out Your Soul is an album with frequent moment of greatness and one that reminds us that popular music isn’t always about flash-in-the-pans and next-big-things and can it’s still possible to have long term success by building a consistent body of work as a band. And what could be more exciting than that?