Breaking News

A Lot To Dig On New Oasis Album 'Dig Out Your Soul'

















British supergroup Oasis returns to the fold next month with their seventh studio album, which will appear in record stores on October 7th. If one song sums up the solid effort it is the second track of the album, written by Noel Gallagher, entitled 'The Turning'. The mid-paced song's lyrics proclaim that they are "Mining a dream for the same old song".

The Gallagher brothers and company have a far different approach this time out, which is their freshest sounding album since their heralded debut album - 'Definitely Maybe - which sent shock waves throughout the music world when it was released in 1994 but continues to play homage to their heroes in the past. The band clearly continue to wear their influences proudly on their sleeves borrowing from 'The Beatles', 'The Doors', and the solo work of John Lennon. The band throws nuggets of hits like 'Dear Prudence', 'Five to One', and 'Gimme Some Truth' while making their own compositions expand on those fine works.

Vocalist Liam Gallagher, the voice of an English generation of popular music, calls out in the opening track 'Bag it Up' that "Everything that I believe in tells me that I want more". Fans of the band get that and more on the album. 'The Turning' starts as a delicate piano piece before a guitar solo takes it a new level, while a 50 piece choir helps brings the piece to a close.

Liam's older brother Noel gets his first chance to sing on the third track, 'Waiting for the Rapture', which starts with the familiar beat of 'Five to One' by the 'Doors'. Noel proclaims his love for his longtime girlfriend in the piece and displays a vocal style that he hasn't been heard from in his 14 years in the music business. The next track on the album is single 'The Shock of the Lightning'.

This is the first return to the Oasis that we have came to know from their many years in the spotlight. The new single is their most successful in the United States, in terms of chart placement, since 1997's 'D'you Know What Mean' which was the lead single off their last platinum album effort stateside. The next track is the bands obligatory ode to late Beatle John Lennon, penned by Liam, and entitled 'Out of Time'. 'Out of Time' sounds eerily similar to Lennon, even featuring the late songwriter in an interview clip, and wouldn't sound out of place on Lennon's 'Imagine' or 'Double Fantasy' albums. When Yoko Ono, a known admirer of the Gallagher brothers, hears the track it will likely bring a tear to her eye and she will likely be proud of Liam's most solid songwriting effort to date.

Noel again takes the reins on '(Get of Your) High Horse Lady)' which sounds like a bluesy take on Paul McCartney's 'The Beatles (White Album)' track 'Rocky Racoon'. Think 'Rocky Racoon' meets something you may hear off 'The Rolling Stones' epic 'Exile on Main Street' for this number. It again sounds nothing like Oasis has ever attempted and truly works to break up the first half of the album. Noel starts off the second half of the album by singing 'Falling Down' which, much like Liam sung 'Shock of the Lightning', goes back the 90's Oasis bag of tricks, by employing the "drone-rock" that the songwriter experimented with the band 'Chemical Brothers' in the mid-nineties. '(Get of Your) High Horse Lady)' and 'Falling Down' truly show Noel's diversity and are starkly different but somehow manage to "work" back to back on the albums release.

Gem Archer, who has been with the band since 1999, has the honors of writing the next number on the album. Archer channels his inner-George Harrison by employing a sitar on 'To Be Where There's Life'. The track has a gritty Liam Gallagher vocal, a mean bass line, a sitar, and bravely forgoes the use of a guitar. Liam once again gets to provide another tune, and again opts to go for some solo Lennon styled music. Liam, who has stated that he felt Lennon's spirit enter him before a gig in Manchester in 1996, mines the aggressive Lennon number 'Gimme Some Truth' for the track entitled 'Ain't Got Nothing' which tells a story of a massive punch up in Germany which saw the bands frontman lose his two front teeth. The album closes with two more Lennon sounding pieces with bassist Andy Bell providing the band 'Nature of Reality' and Liam's 'Solider On' which works well as a closing track.

Will Oasis silence naysayers with their latest release? If it has taken 14 years and you still haven't 'Dug Out Your Soul' for the band you will probably never "get" the Gallagher brothers. But if you have been waiting since 1995 for the band to follow up on their most commercially successfully album '(Whats the Story) Morning Glory', this is the album that you may want to pick up as it introduces new sounds while still maintaining the greatness that is Oasis.

Source: www.clevelandleader.com

Click here to vote for us at the BT Music Awards

No comments