CD Review: Oasis, 'Dig Out Your Soul'

THE GENERAL CONSENSUS is that Oasis lost the plot with its third record, 1997's "Be Here Now." Even the band dismisses the CD as overbloated — and who am I to argue?

But there was no redemption for the Gallagher Bros. with Oasis' fourth record, 2000's "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants." Not only did the CD include a typo in its title, confirming the Gallaghers' status as entertaining dullards, it was a mediocre rock record dipped in neo-psychedelic effects to cover for its lack of catchy songs.

The title of Oasis' seventh album, "Dig Out Your Soul," has all the words spelled correctly, but it won't make anybody forget "Definitely Maybe" (1994) or "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" (1995). In fact, after hearing the wholly uninspired "Dig Out Your Soul," you may not even reach for Oasis' first two records again, fearing you might have misjudged them back in the day. (Don't worry: They're still great Brit-pop albums.)

It's tempting to try and place every Oasis song with its Beatles antecedent, but "Dig Out Your Soul" often looks to the decade after the Fab Four's demise for its inspiration. Sure, guitarist Gem Archer's "To Be Where There's Life" has sitar and backward tape effects — with a thudding Ringo-esque drum beat to boot, courtesy of the man's son, Zak Starkey. And singer Liam Gallagher's "I'm Outta Time" includes a John Lennon interview. And "The Shock of the Lightning" gibberishly states "love is litany / a magical mystery" and "The Turning's" coda borrows from "Dear Prudence" because guitarist and primary songwriter Noel Gallagher always has to nick something from The Beatles.

But musically, the CD just as frequently draws from 1970s British glam rock, such as Marc Bolan and T. Rex and David Essex. And while songs such as "Bag It Up," "The Nature of Reality," "Soldier On" and "Waiting for the Rapture" have the stomping midtempo rhythms and chunky guitar riffs of glam rock, they have none of its sexy swagger.

"Waiting for the Rapture" is also an example of "Dig Out Your Soul's" other primary weakness: its utter half-heartedness, from the tossed-off songwriting — "Oi, we hit two minutes yet? Oi, good; just fooking fade it out" — to the tepid, workmanlike performance. The Noel-sung tune just peters to an end, with the elder Gallagher apparently ready to welcome the rapture flat on his back. Even a subdued Liam can't muster any of the vocal sneer that helped make early Oasis songs such snotty joys.

The CD ends with the plodding "Solider On," its title repeated in a dub-influenced haze, though at first I was hoping Liam was moaning, "So long."

Alas, no such luck.

Photo by Andrew MacPherson

» UPDATE: Oasis in alleged song-stealing flap.