Oasis Marathon

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english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
I have the good fortune (or not) to have a job where I can sit at my desk unmolested for days at a time. I've occasionally used these long periods of getting left alone to listen to the whole back catalogue of particular bands, and today it's Oasis' turn.

I'm not very good at following bands closely for extended periods- there's very few bands whose albums I've always bought when they came out, and Oasis are no exception. I bought Definitely Maybe (on cassette, no less!) in 1994, taped What's The Story, Morning Glory from a friend in '95 and was pretty much over them by the time Be Here Now came out. Mrs_bob filled out most of the rest of their discography when we got married and pooled CDs, and we've picked up the last couple of albums since. I'm superficially familiar with their stuff since What's The Story, and I've liked Noel's High Flying Birds stuff, but I can't say I've deliberately listened to Oasis... this century. How do they hold up?

ASKING IN ADVANCE: planning just to do studio albums, but do I include The Masterplan? Not really a "studio album" as such, but very highly regarded nonetheless. What do you think?

Definitely Maybe

Well shit. It's not hard to see what the fuss was about. Oasis got shit right out of the gate as Beatles copyists, and it's true that you can hear Revolver-era Beatles influence all over this record, but what makes it brilliant, rather than an irritating pastiche, is the fact that it manages to sound like so many other things too- T-Rex, The Stone Roses, Slade, even the Sex Pistols in it's massive walls of guitars and sneery, snarling vocal delivery. It's like a greatest hits of populist British guitar bands, without ever sounding like anyone but Oasis. Noel is still as proud as a man of such prodigious self-regard can be of "Live Forever". Honestly though, you can't blame him. 

Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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Comments

  • UnclePsychosisUnclePsychosis Frets: 12879
    The masterplan is better than any LP they recorded post Morning Glory so should definitely be included. 
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26743
    edited March 2018
    Definitely include the Masterplan. 

    I'd also be tempted by Familiar To Millions as it's much better than Be Here Now or the purple one. Though I'm happy to admit I may have a hint of rose-tinted-headphones for that one as it's one of the major records that taught me to play guitar.
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    Definitely include the Masterplan. 

    I'd also be tempted by Familiar To Millions
    I don't think I've got that one. 

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    edited March 2018
    What's The Story) Morning Glory?

    Within the first minute you know they've got a new drummer. And that it's the second album. There's very little on here as memorable as the songs on Definitely Maybe, although I hear Noel's increasing ambition as a songwriter- there's musically more range on show (hence the new drummer, since Tony McCarroll was felt not to be up to the job), even while the lyrics descend in to the sort of meaningless-but-neatly-rhyming dross that they were rightly criticised for. OK, the title track and "Champagne Supernova" are good, but not much else here is blowing my trumpet. Even after nearly 25 years, Wonderwall suffers from over-familiarity.

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11669
    The masterplan is better than any LP they recorded post Morning Glory so should definitely be included. 
    Agreed.
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    edited March 2018
    Be Here Now

    The first of Noel's "stuff I saw written somewhere" album titles, songs written at Mick Jagger's villa while on holiday with Johnny Depp (who also plays guitar on the album) and Kate Moss, Noel and Liam start to properly fall out, copious amounts of drugs are done, Noel gets to sing a bit more, the rip-offs get completely shameless (the "All The Young Dudes" chords on "Stand By Me"), the self-parody gets to comedy levels ("All Around The World", "It's Getting Better (Man!!)"- both interminably over-long too), management try to maintain control of the album in an increasingly global marketplace and everything just generally goes all "rock star excess" for the band. Because seriously, does the nine-minute dirge that you've only just finished listening to need a reprise? No it fucking doesn't.

    In musical news, actual keyboards appear prominently, which makes a nice change from a shabillion tracks of layered guitar. Noel's songs continue to expand in musical range and scope when they aren't re-treads of the same old sheeeeeaaaiiite. Q Magazine called it "cocaine set to music".

    Those footsteps at the end? That's me in 1997 walking away from Oasis (the exact "I'm done" moment was when I saw the "Yellow Submarine" video for "All Around The World" on TV, which basically told me they were happy to be the derivative Beatles rehash band everyone had unfairly accused them of being for years). Two months after OK Computer, they come out with this- the sound of 1994 with more cocaine? I think you can forgive me for thinking they'd had it. Even Noel doesn't like it.

    I'm getting pretty bored of Oasis already. Perhaps I can restore some of my faith in the band with....

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    The Masterplan

    Yes. Cut away the overdubs, come down from all the coke and there's a bloody good band in there. Refreshingly sparse and reassuringly raw. Some really strong songs too, although it's clear why most of them didn't make it to the albums. Some of the early stuff betrays their roots as an early 90s Manchester indie band, but for the most part it just serves to remind someone who's just listened to Be Here Now that Oasis weren't always coke-addled, washed up comedy rock stars recycling their first album for the third time. Bizarrely, even the Be Here Now B-side is very good.

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    edited March 2018
    Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants

    In which Guigsy and Bonehead piss off and leave Liam, Noel and Alan White to make an album, which Noel names after a thing he read on a £2 coin, the flash bastard. I didn't actively dislike it, or get bored of it. With the notable exception of "I can see a liar / sitting by the fire", the cheesy rhymes of early Oasis are largely gone, as are the massive walls of guitar. Starting to sound quite a lot like a High Flying Birds album, except that Liam's still singing (and songwriting now...). Mostly forgettable songs, although "meh" is a step up from the fucking nonsense on Be Here Now.

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26743
    Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants

    In which Guigsy and Bonehead piss off and leave Liam, Noel and Alan White to make an album, which Noel names after a thing he read on a £2 coin, the flash bastard. I didn't actively dislike it, or get bored of it. With the notable exception of "I can see a liar / sitting by the fire", the cheesy rhymes of early Oasis are largely gone, as are the massive walls of guitar. Starting to sound quite a lot like a High Flying Birds album, except that Liam's still singing (and songwriting now...). Mostly forgettable songs, although "meh" is a step up from the fucking nonsense on Be Here Now.
    I think that’s a fair assessment. It got praise when new, which turned to across-the-board panning after a few months but I reckon it’s not bad. Go Let It Out and Gas Panic are still brilliant, and it’s worth trying Let’s All Make Believe from the Go Let It Out b-sides, because it’s properly fantastic.


    https://youtu.be/Hj-xOkHtHRg
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • This thread is solid gold.
    "As with all things, some days you're the dinosaur, some days you're the monkey." Sporky
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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128

    This thread is solid gold.

    Assuming you're being sincere, thanks. :)

    If not... Thanks. :)

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    Heathen Chemistry

    Andy Bell and Gem Archer now firmly in place, an older, wiser, more worn out Noel, now more open to collaboration than before, spots something else on a t-shirt that looks like an album title and we're off to the races. This is the first one I've actively enjoyed since (What's The Story) Morning Glory? (not counting The Masterplan, because it's primarily DM/(WTS)MG-era material). "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" and "Little By Little" are proper Oasis anthems, and the whole thing sounds like a real band firing on all cylinders again. The soon to be very familiar "Gallagher shuffle" rhythm (which, IMO, Noel has made his own) appears on "Force Of Nature"- stay tuned for more of this.

    Incidentally, it's been quite a while since anything sounded like a Beatles rip-off. Somewhere along the line, Noel's very much become his own man as a songwriter. All the influences from Definitely Maybe are still in there, they're just so interwoven now that it's not obvious any more who he's borrowing from at any given moment. 

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    Don't Believe The Truth

    Bye bye, Alan White. Hello Zak Starkey. There's that "Gallagher shuffle" again, straight away on "Turn Up The Sun". "Mucky Fingers" gives us quite a new sound for an Oasis song- like the Velvet Underground squashed up against Bob Dylan or Neil Young or something. As previously mentioned, obvious influences have become hard to pick out on recent Oasis albums, so to hear echoes of someone new is quite refreshing.

    More shuffle-time on "Lyla", then again on "The Importance Of Being Idle" (see, I told you...), which calls to mind The Kinks, or maybe a whole other aspect of The Beatles that wasn't on Definitely Maybe. This album got a really good reception at the time- magazine end-of-year best-of lists and all sorts. It really is good though. When Noel sings the second verse of "Let There Be Love" (which, incidentally, is about the most Beatlesque thing they'd recorded in forever, complete with authentic Starkey fills) you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the happy ending to all the sibling rivalry and fisticuffs of the previous ten years.

    Yeah, er.. no.


    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • This thread is solid gold.

    Assuming you're being sincere, thanks. :)

    If not... Thanks. :)
    I was being 100% sincere. My mate in high school used to write reviews of albums and he has a similarly sarcastic and dry sense of humour.

    Keep it up!
    "As with all things, some days you're the dinosaur, some days you're the monkey." Sporky
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  • HeartfeltdawnHeartfeltdawn Frets: 22096
    edited March 2018
    I have the good fortune (or not) to have a job where I can sit at my desk unmolested for days at a time. I've occasionally used these long periods of getting left alone to listen to the whole back catalogue of particular bands, and today it's Oasis' turn.

    I'm not very good at following bands closely for extended periods- there's very few bands whose albums I've always bought when they came out, and Oasis are no exception. I bought Definitely Maybe (on cassette, no less!) in 1994, taped What's The Story, Morning Glory from a friend in '95 and was pretty much over them by the time Be Here Now came out. Mrs_bob filled out most of the rest of their discography when we got married and pooled CDs, and we've picked up the last couple of albums since. I'm superficially familiar with their stuff since What's The Story, and I've liked Noel's High Flying Birds stuff, but I can't say I've deliberately listened to Oasis... this century. How do they hold up?

    ASKING IN ADVANCE: planning just to do studio albums, but do I include The Masterplan? Not really a "studio album" as such, but very highly regarded nonetheless. What do you think?

    Definitely Maybe

    Well shit. It's not hard to see what the fuss was about. Oasis got shit right out of the gate as Beatles copyists, and it's true that you can hear Revolver-era Beatles influence all over this record, but what makes it brilliant, rather than an irritating pastiche, is the fact that it manages to sound like so many other things too- T-Rex, The Stone Roses, Slade, even the Sex Pistols in it's massive walls of guitars and sneery, snarling vocal delivery. It's like a greatest hits of populist British guitar bands, without ever sounding like anyone but Oasis. Noel is still as proud as a man of such prodigious self-regard can be of "Live Forever". Honestly though, you can't blame him. 

    One of the lasses in my sixth form came from Manchester and came back from a trip up there with a demo tape. At the time, the sixth form was definitely full of DM wearing Chilli Pepper/Faith No More fans. She whacked it on the stereo and she and I were pretty much the only ones who were blown away by it. A few months later, the long haired chaps and chappesses came round to it. 

    I've had Definitely Maybe on four tapes, still have the original, gave two away to friends overseas, and the fourth is still in a friend's battered old car. It's a fantastic album. Well worth chasing down some of the audio of the album before Morris nuked it. Really shows how important a good producer is. 

    Yes you should include The Masterplan. It's as vital a part of the Oasis collection as Sci-Fi Lullabies Disc 1 is for Suede as it demonstrates how much quality material they threw over their singles from their first two albums. Not many bands had B-sides that demanded to be listened to as much as the A-side. 



    As for the rest... Morning Glory I know off by heart. Be Here Now is like The Second Coming in that it's fuelled by an awful lot of coke and money and sounds exactly as you'd expect: overblown, occasionally brilliant, but fucking awful at the lowest points with a good to wank ratio of about 50-50. Be Here Now does have some fucking astounding drum sounds on it.

    Standing on The Shoulder of Giants - much the same. Noel's stuff stands out. 

    Heathen Chemistry - the duffer. Little by Little is alright but everything else can be sunk into a hole and covered over with cat shit. 

    Don't Believe The Truth - actually it's good. It works as an album and The Importance of Being Idle is fucking brilliant. 

    Dig Out Your Soul - take out the ploddy bits and there's some good stuff on there. Falling Down is the highlight. 



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  • HeartfeltdawnHeartfeltdawn Frets: 22096
    Be Here Now

    The first of Noel's "stuff I saw written somewhere" album titles, songs written at Mick Jagger's villa while on holiday with Johnny Depp (who also plays guitar on the album) and Kate Moss, Noel and Liam start to properly fall out, copious amounts of drugs are done, Noel gets to sing a bit more, the rip-offs get completely shameless (the "All The Young Dudes" chords on "Stand By Me"), the self-parody gets to comedy levels ("All Around The World", "It's Getting Better (Man!!)"- both interminably over-long too), management try to maintain control of the album in an increasingly global marketplace and everything just generally goes all "rock star excess" for the band. Because seriously, does the nine-minute dirge that you've only just finished listening to need a reprise? No it fucking doesn't.

    In musical news, actual keyboards appear prominently, which makes a nice change from a shabillion tracks of layered guitar. Noel's songs continue to expand in musical range and scope when they aren't re-treads of the same old sheeeeeaaaiiite. Q Magazine called it "cocaine set to music".

    Those footsteps at the end? That's me in 1997 walking away from Oasis (the exact "I'm done" moment was when I saw the "Yellow Submarine" video for "All Around The World" on TV, which basically told me they were happy to be the derivative Beatles rehash band everyone had unfairly accused them of being for years). Two months after OK Computer, they come out with this- the sound of 1994 with more cocaine? I think you can forgive me for thinking they'd had it. Even Noel doesn't like it.

    I'm getting pretty bored of Oasis already. Perhaps I can restore some of my faith in the band with....

    And it's the excessive bits that I like. It's like Exile on Main Street, the bits where the drugs work are great. 



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  • HeartfeltdawnHeartfeltdawn Frets: 22096
    Have a listen to this...





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  • english_bobenglish_bob Frets: 5128
    Dig Out Your Soul

    If it hadn't come on straight after Don't Believe The Truth, at the end of eight hours of Oasis I might have been more impressed. The first one since Be Here Now to be recorded by the same line up that recorded the previous album, it's just good. Not great, but not disappointing after  DBTT. Goes a bit psychedelic in parts, and manages to do the massive production thing without sounding like Be Here Now all over again. 

    Then Liam and Noel had their final bust-up, Noel got mad that the band didn't take his side, and that was that. Unsurprisingly, Noel's post-Oasis stuff has been better than Liam's, but hovers frustratingly in the area between "alright" and "actually really good". Sad they couldn't get it together to appear together at the Manchester bombing benefit this year- that would have been amazing. 

    Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.

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  • TrudeTrude Frets: 914
    I like them FAR more for their entertaining interviews and savage bluntness than for anything they've ever done musically.

    I reckon they should've got themselves a TV show after the first album and just left it at that.  Like an anti Ant & Dec.
    Some of the gear, some idea

    Trading feedback here
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  • not_the_djnot_the_dj Frets: 7306
    Good thread this @english_bob ; I sometime do the same binge listening to one artist from start to finish.

    Have you seen the Supersonic documentary? I caught it over Xmas and it really gave a great insight into the early years (ends at the big Knebworth gigs).

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