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Post by webm@ster on Oct 6, 2008 13:30:56 GMT -5
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Post by NoelandMeMay29 on Oct 6, 2008 13:49:08 GMT -5
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Post by caats19 on Oct 6, 2008 23:14:28 GMT -5
anybody else like to add reviews to the wiki page? somebody replaced the guardian score with the lesser score and i couldn't have that.
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Post by Cast on Oct 6, 2008 23:22:28 GMT -5
www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2008-10-06-oasis-dig-out-your-soul_N.htm?loc=interstitialskipBy Ken Barnes, USA TODAY Oasis, Dig Out Your Soul * * * ½ (out of four) OFF THE BRIT-BEATIN' PATH Democracy can be dangerous for a rock band. Not every group has a Lennon, McCartney and Harrison — a chilling example being Creedence Clearwater Revival, who dissolved into mediocrity when John Fogerty allowed the other members to write songs. But for Oasis, democracy seems to be working out the kinks (and The Beatles and other '60s U.K. role models) on its seventh album. There are six mostly frontloaded songs by semi-benign dictator Noel Gallagher, powerful, densely produced but pretty, much like the first Noel you heard years ago. And there are five others — three by singer Liam Gallagher and one each by guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell. These tend to be more exotic, more melodic and frequently more interesting. FIND MORE STORIES IN: Beatles | John Lennon | Oasis | McCartney | John Fogerty | Creedence Clearwater Revival | Noel Gallagher | Falling Down | Liam Gallagher | Tomorrow Never Knows That's too convenient a generalization: Noel's Falling Down may be his best replication of John Lennon's Tomorrow Never Knows yet, and Liam's Ain't Got Nothin' is on the slighter side. But the balance of inspiration seems to be shifting, and that can only be a good thing for this still largely unmatchable rock band's future. >Download: To Be Where There's Life, Falling Down, I'm Outta Time, (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady>Consider: Everything else Share this story: sorry if posted
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Post by start at the end on Oct 7, 2008 8:19:43 GMT -5
here's Blender's ...they gave it three stars, but it reads more like a 4-star affair. Bizarre. www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=5312 Review Oasis Dig Out Your Soul *** (Big Brother/Warner Bros.) Release Date: 10/7/2008 Gallagher brothers' heaviest record since 1997's Be Here Now is also their best Reviewed by Tony Power After Oasis’s mid-’90s winning streak ended, their following pared back to its core of louts, hooligans and mouth-breathers. The rest of us have missed only an occasional belting single, such as “Lyla,” from 2006. And though Dig Out Your Soul is not mid-’90s in quality, its newly gloomy stomp and deafening, saw-tooth guitars recall a time when Oasis were thought dangerous. The two awful songs—“Waiting for the Rapture” and “(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady”—and fridge-magnet Beatles lyrics (“Love is a litany/A magical mystery”) are par for the course, and the payoffs include the two best songs singer Liam Gallagher has yet written: the strident, balladic “I’m Outta Time” and the snarling “Ain’t Got Nothin’.” Overall, Dig Out Your Soul is a dark, heavy, chart-snubbing record that acts Oasis’s age (main songwriter Noel Gallagher is 42) and is their first in eons that doesn’t seem desperate to please. Oasis have their devil back.
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Post by webm@ster on Oct 7, 2008 8:23:46 GMT -5
LA TIMES
Oasis
Dig Out Your Soul
(Big Brother)
* * 1/2
Oasis has long worn its psychedelic influences on its sleeve, and on its latest album, "Dig Out Your Soul," released today, the band often sounds as though it wishes it were 1969 all over again. There's a forward motion to the backward glances, but the spiritual-philosophical bent of many of the songs suggests that brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher preferred the era when rock stars set out to explore the meaning of life rather than maximize the monetization of their brand.
Noel Gallagher wrote six of the album's 11 songs -- with three from Liam and one apiece from bassist Andy Bell and rhythm guitarist Gem Archer -- and his are the most cryptically evocative.
"The Turning" references the Rapture, fallen angels and a messiah in its sense of the impending arrival of something ominous, hopeful or both. "The Shock of the Lightning" might be an expression of physical or spiritual ecstasy, and its lyric "Love is a litany . . . a magical mystery" is yet another of this band's acknowledgments of its eternal debt to the Beatles.
There are likewise musical quotations from "Helter Skelter," "Dear Prudence" and other "White Album"-era Fab Four songs, along with nods to the Who circa "Tommy" and the Stones à la "2000 Light Years From Home."
Bell's "The Nature of Reality" delves headlong into existential questioning, with lyrical economy that's 180 degrees from Archer's wordy "To Be Where There's Life."
It all adds up to something fairly amorphous, but the band's crunching guitars and insinuating melodies provide a bracing contrast in this decade of weepy SLC (Sounds Like Coldplay) British rock.
--
Randy Lewis
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Post by simon81uk on Oct 8, 2008 18:49:38 GMT -5
Another great review , from IGN this time giving it 9.1/10...not sure about calling the last 2 albums languid though! sorry if its already been posted uk.music.ign.com/articles/917/917496p1.htmlOasis - Dig Out Your Soul Britpop stalwarts return with renewed vigor. by Spence D. US, October 8, 2008 - While their contemporaries have often drastically shifted musical styles from album to album (i.e. Blur), Oasis have remained tried and true to their original version: delivering a dirtier, grittier take on classic Britpop (vintage Beatles, the more melodic offerings of The Stones). Little has changed with their seventh studio full-length, except the band sound like they're on a mission to recapture the urgency, energy, and pissed off swagger of their earlier recordings. After a few languid efforts (Heathen Chemistry and Don't Believe The Truth), the quartet sound downright reinvigorated this time around. Their renewed enthusiasm is blatantly evident on the searing opener "Bag It Up," which revolves around a rusty guitar wrangle and contrasting bursts of melodic sweetness. The vocal harmonizing of the Brothers Gallagher is vintage Oasis and the song's climactic conclusion is riveting. That it bleeds seamlessly into "The Turning" shows that the group is intent on making an album, a singular listening experience as opposed to a bunch of songs tossed together willy-nilly. It's an approach that comes off incredibly refreshing in this day and age of digital downloads and throwback singles mentality. Aside from a stronger sense of purpose, the album bubbles with an alternating rich soul and grungy blues undertone. Granted the band has always flirted with soulful elements of funk, and R&B, but here it is the subdued foundation of every track—from the grinding lurch of "Waiting For The Rapture" to the hand claps and foot stomps of "High Horse Lady" and the loping roll of "Soldier One. Throughout the course of the 11 tracks the band basically kicks blue-eyed soul theatrics in the bollocks with fierce repetition. This isn't to say that they've abandoned their beloved psychedelic penchants or their obvious Beatles fetish, though. "The Shock Of The Lightning" is classic Oasis, taking a pure, late period Beatles guitar swirl and switching it up. There's even one lyrical refrain that goes so far as to exclaim "love is a magical mystery..."). Elsewhere, "I'm Outta Time" sounds like a Lennon piano ballad tainted with slight country tones (it even has a brief musical allusion "A Day In The Life"), "To Be Where There's Life" delivers a sitar infused George Harrison homage in excelsior. Then there's "The Nature Of Reality", which is a garage rock blow-out that blends melodic nuance with mutant blues expulsion. Dig Out Your Soul is not so much Oasis bringing anything new to the table as it is them retrofitting what they do best. It's as if they have spent the past three years looking deep into their catalog, reexamining all their strengths and influences and then taking the best elements and severely tightening them up. The best thing about the album is that there's an undeniable sense of passion bristling within every song and that passion runneth over. Download Worthy: 1. "Bag It Up" 2. "The Turning" 3. "(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady" 4. "To Be Where There's Life" 5. "The Nature Of Reality" 6. "Soldier On"
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Post by Silence Dogood on Oct 9, 2008 16:11:14 GMT -5
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GH
Oasis Roadie
Posts: 108
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Post by GH on Oct 9, 2008 18:05:02 GMT -5
Time Magazine reviewed Oasis (DOYS) and Blur (Damon's circus opera). www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1848756,00.html Thursday, Oct. 09, 2008 Monkey and Beatles By Josh Tyrangiel In the pre-Winehouse era, the British exported their music, not their dirty laundry, which is why it's possible for Americans to recall the mid-'90s moment when Oasis and Blur jostled for the title of rock's best band in complete ignorance of the fact that the groups genuinely loathed each other. The divisive issues were class and ambition: Oasis' Noel and Liam Gallagher boasted that they had neither, while the members of Blur were posh college kids who briefly went by the band name Seymour, after J.D. Salinger's suicidal genius. Blur's music had oblique melodies and omnivorous influences; Oasis ripped off as many Beatles tunes as it could get away with. On one of the many occasions when Blur's lead singer, Damon Albarn, mocked the musical sophistication of his rivals, Noel Gallagher replied that he wished Albarn would "catch AIDS and die." It was, in its horrible way, an excellent feud. A decade and change later, Blur has broken up. But Albarn stayed on his artistic trajectory and has assumed the throne, vacant since David Bowie's prime, of popular music's avant-gardist in chief. In the past few years, he's launched a cartoon hip-hop band (Gorillaz), an Afro-pop album (Mali Music) and a side project with a member of the Clash. All were slightly ridiculous (hip-hop, world music, supergroup--the hubristic rock star's triple crown) but well received, yet none can quite prepare you for Albarn's latest: Journey to the West, a "circus opera" based on a Ming-dynasty novel, with lyrics in Mandarin by Chinese actor Chen Shi-zheng. The protagonist is the wildly self-confident Monkey, who irritates his peers with his certainty that he is far more gifted than they are and deserving of immortal acclaim. He doesn't go by the nickname Damon, but it's a fair question. Journey was performed multiple times over the past year to raves, but listening to the score out of context is a little like hearing gossip about people you don't know: some things simply don't register. Portions of the album, however, are breathtaking. The instruments--from synthesizers and the thereminesque Ondes Martenot to harps and an acrylic doodad of Albarn's co-invention that replicates the sound of car horns on busy Chinese roads--are lavish, but the exoticism is somehow kept in check. Typical of Albarn's various cultural adventures, he doesn't attempt to pass as a local; the details and pentatonic scale may come from Chinese folk music, but the playful melodies are rooted in pop. The fluttering female voices on "Heavenly Peach Banquet" resolve as the la-la-la-la-las from Minnie Ripperton's "Lovin' You." "Iron Rod" sounds like R2-D2 rapping on a dance floor. "The Living Sea" is a ballad of such delicacy that it feels like a love song in any language. The music does a fair job of telling Monkey's story, but that's far less interesting than the ambition on display and the effortless integration of different traditions. Oasis' seventh album, Dig Out Your Soul, also incorporates different traditions: John Lennon's and Paul McCartney's. There are plenty of worse musicians to rob, and on several tracks Oasis proves that it still has a gift for towering, arena-friendly tunes. "I'm Outta Time" is rock balladry at its shameless best--with an emotional guitar lead and a sweeping, sing-along chorus: "If I am to go/ In my heart you grow." Good luck resisting it, even if there is a needlessly appended sample from Lennon's final radio interview. "Ain't Got Nothin'" takes the band out of its midtempo sweet spot with an erratic snare drum that refuses to settle into a predictable rhythm. It's like "Helter Skelter" but faster. Much of Dig Out Your Soul is pretty good, but none of it is particularly challenging--to the listener or its creators. Oasis too has stayed on its trajectory. Noel Gallagher recently told an interviewer that "it's a working-class thing ... I'm not an experimenter." Even if you overlook this patronizing view of the working class, the limiting of artistic horizons as a virtue is worrisome. For all the Beatles envy, it's the Rolling Stones whom Oasis has come to resemble most--not in its music but in its aversion to acknowledging anything but its own success.
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Post by iiclisoy on Oct 10, 2008 2:17:50 GMT -5
the time review/article is one of the most insulting/inaccurate oasis articles ive ever read. 1. to say that oasis arent AMBITIOUS is one of the most ridiculous things ive heard. noel and liam have always been characterized by their ambition, repeating saying that unlike other small bands theyve always wanted to be the biggest in the world. 2. throughout the article the writer insinuates that damon is the model of intellect while noel is just a foul-mouthed buffon. despite all his degrees or whatever, ive never heard damon say an interesting or challenging comment in the press. meanwhile, noel has one of the sharpest minds and wit of any musician. 3. to say that noel has a patronizing view of the working-class suggests that he is of a privileged upbringing looking down on the lower-classes. noel grew up in the working class and definitely retains some working-class aspects and ideologies. (if not in his bank account) this reviewer obviously knows nothing about oasis except the tiresome: How To Write About Oasis 101, which merely consists of mostly unfounded beatles comparisons which the smug reporters always think is so clever. as someone who is intrigued by music journalism and considers it as a future job opportunity, this article really bothers me.
p.s. I dont understand how Damon's shitty chinese monkey opera can be so lauded by the press for originality and forward-thinking. its a complete cop-out. instead of making music that is judged by every music fan, he is making music that cannot be criticized because nobody knows fuck all about it. its like writing childrens books as opposed to novels. nobody can criticize a childrens book because theres no real guidelines or reference points. wow, dr.suess what a genius. hop on pop....a triumph! no one else writes that stuff not because you have to be a genius but because its daft.
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Post by checkwithmemum on Oct 10, 2008 3:00:15 GMT -5
Most of the stuff he points out about being good in the opera is what oasis do best
Ballad - got them pop melodies - bag loads of them car horn/ random sounds - every song almost la la la las - check
what i dont get is this:
To me music = a collection of sounds that come together and form something which we listen to. So far in my life I've not heard ambition make a sound, how can music be judged on its ambition if it doesn't make a sound
I know that's a bit of a layman's view on music but at the route of it all that is the truth
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Post by chocolate st*rfish on Oct 13, 2008 6:55:27 GMT -5
germany's biggest indie e-zine laut.de rates DOYS 4/5Their most psychedelic album so far **** 13 years after WTSMG the release of an oasis record is still an event. therefore the fuss about "Dig Out Your Soul", studio album #7, is huge. immediately after the first listen we're realizing that the latest output qualitatively charts between the output of the genius mid 90s years and the coked up, slightly embarrasing "Be Here Now". according to chief songwriter noel recording has never been easier than this time around. all sessions in the legendary abbey road studios were taken with self-discipline. are the mad times over? did the wild rowdys turn into cool daddies? and most importantly: did it affect the songwriting? well the music still tastes of gin and tonnic and beer. it still smells like smoky rocknroll clubs, we still prefer listening to it right before we're going out to party and doing so as loud as possible thus giving you the buzz for the rest of the night. that hasnt changed at all. looking at the artwork the gallaghers plus gem&andy seem to be more interested in doing mushrooms than coke nowadays. the patched-together images of a nuclear mushroom cloud, a huge wave and butterflies on the cover look like a hippie-patchwork-drawing to me. indeed "Dig Out Your Soul" is oasis' most psychedelic album so far. it sounds like a mashup of the Stones, the Beatles and a pinch of Pink Floyd. that mixture peaks at the gem-written "To Be Where There's Life". first of all "Bag It Up" makes up for a solid opener. the melodies stay in your ear even after the very first listen. the guitars are driving straight through you, the song is overladed with that pleasent swagger. Liam pushes the words forward with his familiar rawness: "Someone tell me I'm dreaming / The freaks are rising up through the floor/ Everything I believe in /Is telling me that I want more, more, more". "The Turning" paces the album down. Pianos intermingle with a decently driving drumbeat. on "Waiting For The Rapture" noel takes the lead languishing along with the typical oasis guitar bombast. i'm clueless why of all songs "The Shock of the Lightning" was chosen as lead single - stadiumrock coupled with one of the worst choruses from oasis: "Love is a time machine / Up on the silver screen / It's all in my mind / Love is a litany / A magical mystery". but just after that there's "I'm Outta Time". one of the most tender ballads liam has ever written. the beatles are the blueprint here not only musically. as a homage we can hear john lennon's voice accompanied by liam on the piano while we're looking amazed at a supernova. "Ain't Got Nothing" and "Soldier On" are also liam's efforts. AGN sounds overloaded and overlayered, soldier on pyschedelically drifts around let's liam disappear into feedback and guitar noise. never ever again shall andy bell pick up the pen to wirte a song. his "Nature of Reality" is -thanks to a horrible guitar riff- a complete disaster. all in all "Dig Out Your Soul" is certainly not a big shot, yet "Bag It Out", "Falling Down" and "I'm Outta Time" make up for real hits. we're eager to learn which drug will dominate the next oasis album------------ sorry for the rough translation..in a hurry at the mom
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2008 15:16:02 GMT -5
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Post by start at the end on Oct 16, 2008 13:29:14 GMT -5
Yeah if you really look at how they award "percentages" a 70's good, especially when you consider the ridiculously irrelevant one and two star reviews included in there. Equates to a 3 1/2 out of 5 star review in my opinion...maybe a bit higher.
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Post by tank13 on Oct 25, 2008 7:10:00 GMT -5
www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/oasis/dig_out_your_soul/index.htmlUltimate-Guitar.com 8.3/10 Sound: For many people, the return of Oasis to the frontlines is cause to break out a bottle of Bolli Stolli champagne, since it has been Oasis’ music that folks from around the world have grabbed onto as if it was their life-support. The band’s forthcoming release Dig Out Your Soul is the band’s seventh studio album and their first new music since the release of their 2006 hit single “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down, ” which was featured in the movie by the same name and directed by Baillie Walsh. Produced by Dave Sardy who also produced Oasis’ 2005 album Don’t Believe The Truth, Dig Out Your Soul is a collaborative effort among the band members, which includes lead vocalist Liam Gallagher, guitarists Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer, and bassist Andy Bell. There are a few tracks that will remind fans of the band’s earlier days like the sleet of soft swirling melodic motions and slinky vibrations cast through “Falling Down” and the moody inflections of “Ain’t Got Nothin’” but the exotic middle eastern overtones of “To Be Where There’s Life” have shimmery psychedelics that wrap the listener in an altered state of being with slightly warped intonations and chains gilded in echoing cymbals which is unlike any of Oasis’ previous works. At times, the music feels like it has tapped into new sources of inspiration mixed in with the band’s old wells of trippy riffs, searing vocal moxie, and Brit-pop bearings which make up “The Shock Of The Lightning.” The vintage rock tazers and hard rock ridges in “The Nature Of Reality” and “Bag It Up” brick the rhythmic grooves with well chiseled formations while the slurring lines of “Soldier On” move like a blurry haze of fog. The slow moving bluesy keys swimming in the underbelly of “The Turning” and “I’m Outta Time” produce a subliminal aura as the rattling tambourines in “The Turning” and the seraphic moving string arrangement in “I’m Outta Time” wander wistfully. The heavy anvil-heeled rhythms of “High Horse Lady” and “Waiting For The Rapture” give the album substance and a firm backbone, while shifting the album away from it's Brit-pop pageantry and hypnotic whistling. // 7 Lyrics and Singing: The lyrics have a hypnotic ringing as well which complement the whispery shadows like in “The Shock Of The Lightning.” The song was penned by Liam Gallagher whose voice roams over the swells, “Comin’ up in the early morning / I feel love in the shock of the lightning / Come in, come out / Come in, come out tonight / Love is a time machine / Up on the silver screen / It’s all in my mind / Love is a litany / A magical mystery / And all in good time.” // 8 Impression: Oasis’ new album Dig Out Your Soul cannot miss with the band’s diehard fans. The album has enough of the old Oasis to appease them, and just the right amount of different influences to draw in new admirers. Formed by the Gallagher brothers in 1991 in Manchester, England, Oasis has sold over 50 million records worldwide. Their love affair with rock music seems far from being over by the sounds of Dig Out Your Soul, and for many folks, that is just fine by them. // 7 - Susan Frances aka sweetpeasuzie (c) 2008 Was this review helpful to you? Yes / No Post your comment overall: 9.3 Reviewed by: wiggy1988, on october 13, 2008 0 of 0 people found this review helpful Sound: This album is probably the best that Oasis have produced since their peak of the 90's. Fans who've followed the band should probably consider it part of a trilogy. Definately Maybe - The Rock n Roll dream Whats The Story - Achieving the dream Dig Out Your Soul - A Psychedelic Reflection The album itself works well as a whole, with each song easily fitting in with the next while at the same time having a different attitude and style. It might take some time for listeners to trully appreciate the album but if you play it through a few times it most certainly opens up. // 10 Lyrics and Singing: The lyrics are pretty much the same as any other Oasis album but more along the lines of Champagne Supernova than anything else. As usual Noel is writting his nonesense lyrics which actually seem to make sense when put in song format. And Liams lyrics have certainly come a long way from his first attempts such as "Little James". // 9 Impression: This is certainly one of their most Beatlesesque album, though there are a number of other influences floating around. it's a highly psychedilic album that shows the Gallaghers have looked back on their strengths and really gone all out on this one. The most impressive songs for me were: - Bag it up - Waiting for the rapture - I'm outta time - The Shock of the lightening (I would have liked this song more if Radio 1 hadn't played it to death already) Though to be honest all had their strenths and weaknesses. If this album were stolen I would deffinately buy it again. Definately, not maybe. // 9
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Post by webm@ster on Nov 21, 2008 12:58:14 GMT -5
The Bodoin Orient
Oasis tries to relive glory days on ‘Soul’ November 21, 2008
By Louis Weeks COLUMNIST
For the past five years, Oasis has been the punchline of many a pop culture joke. Liam and Noel's brotherly antics have landed them on countless VH1 countdowns, and they are even satirized in one of the world's hippest TV shows. Liam Gallagher is the not-so-subtle inspiration for LOST's Charlie Pace, from Driveshaft ("You All Everybody"). Charlie Pace and Liam Gallagher represent what we all love and look for in our rock gods: a healthy appetite for self-destruction and a fiery British temperament. But if there is one thing we all crave more, it is the comeback album.
Although they have recorded steadily over the past decade, Oasis feels trapped in their 1995 masterpiece "(What's the Story) Morning Glory." The album's mega hit, "Wonderwall," has reached an eternal spot in guitar history. It's like "Blackbird," "Sweet Home Alabama" or "Free Falling"—anyone who owns a guitar plays it. But even with tens of thousands of "Joe the Strummers" (Palin, I hold a copyright on that) massacring it all over the world, the song never gets old. Furthermore, that gem of a song managed to get us to sing something that doesn't mean anything. What the hell is a wonderwall? The album has other instant hits as well: "Champagne Supernova," "Some Might Say," "Don't Look Back in Anger"... The list goes on. Needless to say, it seems almost impossible to top that album. Oasis' newest release, "Dig Out Your Soul," proves just how true this is.
"Dig Out Your Soul" is not a bad album; it's just confused. There are very good parts and there are very weak parts of this release. The album has one crucial and unforgivable flaw: It's trying too hard. The first half of the album attempts to prove through hard-hitting, loud-playing and face-melting rock songs that Oasis is back. But the songs themselves are not interesting enough to win over even the most ardent Oasis fan. They lack the singability or the sweet simplicity of the songs of old. It seems that Oasis became preoccupied with the process of recording rather than writing solid songs. Each track is loaded with sound, blanketing the hard truth that none of these songs could have an acoustic version. Furthermore, the last 20 seconds of each track contains a recording of ambient noise. For example, one track's ending features an ambulance siren, while another has feet scuffling across a wooden floor. This feeble attempt at creating a unified album is ultimately unsuccessful.
The album does have some very redeeming qualities. Songs like "Shock of the Lighting," "I'm Outta Time" and "(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady," remind us of the old Oasis, an Oasis obsessed with melodies that made you want to sing as loud as you could. These songs are smaller and more intimate; the unnecessary layers of sound were stripped away, allowing the lyrics and vocals to step into the forefront.
"Dig Out Your Soul" feels unsuccessful because Oasis has abandoned what it did so well. Albums like "Morning Glory" were effective because each song was crafted to perfection, and they didn't let extraneous production cloud the intent of the song. Oasis of the '90s was successful, essentially, because they adopted a modern Beatles sound. Their punchy piano riffs, bold and simple drum beats and natural harmonies could easily have been written by McCartney or Harrison. Because the Beatles' influence exists over such a vast expanse of rock music, it's hard to depart from their style. That is not to say that Oasis is a note-for-note carbon copy of the Beatles. But once you sound like them, you're in, and once you stop, you're out. I never thought I'd say this, but the Beatles ruined everything.
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Post by webm@ster on Nov 28, 2008 10:48:55 GMT -5
Pressdemocrat.com
A lot of Oasis naysayers get hung up on originality. OK, let's all admit that Oasis is the Puff Daddy of rock bands.
Like the hip-hop impresario, the quintet from Manchester, England, appropriates sounds, lyrics and ideas from giant hitmakers of the past (most notably the Beatles) and turns them into new anthems for a generation that doesn't know or doesn't care whom Noel and Liam Gallagher are ripping off.
Every band rips off somebody else to some degree; Oasis just happens to be pilfering from the biggest rock band of all time. Oasis has bigger problems than a lack of originality on its seventh album, "Dig Out Your Soul," released Oct. 7.
Principal songwriter Noel Gallagher and his minions draw from the same deep well of classic rock that they always have. There are references to the Doors (the opening riff of "Waiting for the Rapture" is lifted from "5 to 1"), as well as Pink Floyd, the Who and even Gary Glitter.
But it's once again the Beatles who resurface on nearly every song: a sample of a John Lennon interview in "I'm Outta Time," a "magical mystery" reference in "The Shock of the Lightning," a hook from "I Am the Walrus" in "Soldier On," the massed "Helter Skelter" guitars that introduce "The Nature of Reality" and the lyrical "Dear Prudence" guitars that conclude "The Turning." Even the cymbal washes on "Waiting for the Rapture" and the sitars and kick drum on "To Be Where There's Life" could've been imported from a George Martin session for "Revolver" or "The Beatles" white album.
The band also borrows from its heroes' introspective post-Maharishi phase in its lyrics. In its glory days, when it became the biggest band in England since you-know-who, Liam Gallagher sang with measured, cocky defiance about long nights of "Cigarettes and Alcohol" and the immortality of being 20. For a short time, it was an engagingly callow but undeniable sound, the bravado of British youth crossed with songs that just felt good to sing at the top of your lungs because, let's face it, they were already so bloody familiar.
Now the lyrics turn inward to contemplate how "Love is a time machine/Up on the silver screen" and "Space and time are here and now/And only in your mind."
The self-absorbed subject matter is matched by sluggish tempos. The exception is "The Shock of the Lightning," an obvious candidate for the first single with a propulsive groove that suggests Oasis can still deliver a great guilty pleasure once in a while. The rest sounds like the work of a big rock band in a narcotic haze with a gazillion dollars to spend on studio time.
Oasis' Beatles fixation isn't the main reason "Dig Out Your Soul" doesn't work. No, the main failing is one of urgency and conviction, no matter how many layers of voices and instruments the band piles atop the borrowed melodies.
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Post by largedibble on Dec 1, 2008 14:18:20 GMT -5
No record ever gets 5/5 anymore. Much less an Oasis one, which the british press always like to bag on. Who cares? Anyway, found another review. Fell asleep half way through but I looked like it was positive. LD www.arcticreviews.co.uk/index.php?section=1&rid=253
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Post by themanwithnoname on Dec 3, 2008 8:30:39 GMT -5
the time review/article is one of the most insulting/inaccurate oasis articles ive ever read. 1. to say that oasis arent AMBITIOUS is one of the most ridiculous things ive heard. noel and liam have always been characterized by their ambition, repeating saying that unlike other small bands theyve always wanted to be the biggest in the world. I think they possibly mean musical ambition - in which case they'd be right. I agree with quite a lot of that review.
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Post by crashininuponawav on Dec 14, 2008 21:22:26 GMT -5
most critically acclaimed album since BHN woop
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Post by superyid on Jan 28, 2009 6:22:19 GMT -5
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Post by Headmaster on Feb 19, 2009 19:16:34 GMT -5
Anybody could put here the scanner of the Q magazine with the DOYS review.
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Post by soldieron7 on Feb 26, 2009 4:54:10 GMT -5
couldn't care less for the press reviews (positive or negative). what's important for me is my own take on the album and it's 9/10. best album since fucking Be Here Now! end of
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roundourway
RKid
http://thetorchsociety.blogspot.com/
Posts: 36
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Post by roundourway on Feb 28, 2009 4:35:36 GMT -5
Amen
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blaah
Oasis Roadie
Posts: 216
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Post by blaah on Mar 2, 2009 2:06:54 GMT -5
I had sometime on my hands so I thought I might translate this review from finnish (Finland) magazine "Soundi": www.soundi.fi/arvostelut?nid=8257BTW. I get the impression that the reviewer is a fan of the band (to some extent), and I suspect that he´d heard an interview of Noel raising up the point about how the record would be received if this were their first album, and then borrowed it in his article . Ok, here´s the review, excuse for my poor translation skills: At the same time as the defiant opening track Bag It Up of Oasis new album is blasting through the speakers i start wondering. What if this was the beginning of the album by a new, up and coming band dreaming of breaking it big. What would I think? I would probably lay on my back with my eyes rolling in the head and I would thank Jesus and Moses for this great rock-novelty.
As the record would go on I would be even more moved by the fact that someone does so energetic and ballsy classic britrock without sounding like a copy of their predecessors. I think many would agree with me. What about the fact that it´s the seventh studio album of a band that is fighting to hold on to the grips of their relevancy. Does the world yawn, expect for the most loyal fans, and shrugg it´s shoulders for the worth of two stars out of five? I hope not, because Dig Out Your Soul is a splendid record.
The most confusing thing about the new album is the freshness and hungry energy that it radiates. Composing wise it moves along where you might expect, which is in the origo of english rocklegacy, at the meeting point of The Beatles -music and mildly punk-spirited quarreling. It would be a dissapointment if a group as boneheaded as Oasis would have abandoned it´s gods.
Therefore it´s a welcomed surprise that the basic tricks have been managed to get into so edgy and bulky package. Dave Sardy who´s produced very impressive sounds on many occasions has succeeded excellently at what he put into start on Don´t Believe The Truth (2005). Oasis has gained more twisting moments, aggressiveness and tasteful crunch on their sound. The guitars of Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer are rounching pompously and Chris Sharrock, who´s up for the almost Spinal Tap -level reaching draft of the drumming gig, is playing with a grooving hardness. I hope that the most sensitive friends of britpop won´t mind when I say that Oasis playing has fantastic feeling of kicking ass. Liam Gallagher who is performing very assertively is in a good place to deliver his goods at the top of the heavy but at the same time also three-dimensional roaring soundwall.
The question of destiny of course is how good are the tunes that Noel and his assistants have written for the prodigal son to sing. I would say good enough. It is impossible to find evergreens and every man´s singalong favorites from Dig Out Your Soul, but the measure of songwriting cannot only be in minorchoir -singing stadioncrowds.
An early middle-aged band like Oasis that´s been ragged around and over many storms can be very proud of themselves with delivering as fatherly earful of music as this to their inheritors. The last great english rockgroup has not yet wellered (Paul Weller) into the halfrelic that deserves mainly to be in the role of an elder statesman. Oasis has their place in the playing fieldful.
(Soundi 10/2008)
- Pekka Laine
4/5 stars
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