In a review of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory a reviewer, I can’t remember who, assessed Oasis’ place in rock music, writing, “They’d be your favorite band if no one else knew about them.” And at the time, it was a fair assessment. But oh what two albums can do.

Five years after Morning Glory, Oasis have become victims of their own excesses: Excess of fame, excess of lifestyle, excess of excess. Nowhere was this clearer than on 1998’s Be Here Now. The songs were all good, yet no new ground was broken, unless you count the ground into which every song was beaten. Consensus held that it would have been a good album if all of the songs had been about three minutes shorter.

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants attempts to reclaim ground lost on Be Here Now. It drops ponderously long songs and simply replaces them with ponderously ponderous songs. It adds a sample here and a scratch there, but falls miles short of the dance inflected album that Noel Gallagher has been promising for years. Standing attempts to apply a Zepplinesque overlay to Abbey Road, resulting in the band’s sounding here and there like an altogether soulless version of The Verve. All in all, it is the single most uncompelling album Oasis could have made.

Standing succeeds mostly as an exercise in sharp relief. As ordinary a songwriter as Noel has become, his ordinariness is given full floor when compared to Liam’s sole songwriting contribution, “Little James.” Basically, It is a rewrite of “Hey Jude” minus the sweetness, and it is an absolute horror. Noel’s contributions should tower over tripe like this; alas, they don't.

Lest this become an outright Liam bashing, it must be said that the junior Gallagher does have one of the most expressive voices in rock today. His bratty nasalness is a road accident of a voice. You’d like to not be fascinated by it, but you can’t help it. The guy has soul oozing out of his soul—quite a feat for a fellow, who by all accounts, is a dimwit.

Still rather than having the sense to play to the band’s strength, namely Liam’s voice, Noel decides to monopolize two cuts (20% of the album) with his horrifically wooden vocals. Here what shines through is that everything Liam is not as a lyricist, Noel is also not as a vocalist. In a way, Noel’s choice to sing is a blessing in that it goes some way toward distracting from the fact that these are two of the weakest songs the elder Gallagher has ever put together.

Standing poses one important question. The same one we were forced to answer about Johnny Marr and Morrissey in the wake of The Smiths’ breakup. Who makes the better career afterwards? A huge Marr fan, I made the wrong call at the time. I will not do that now.

Oasis breaks up, which they will do after no more than two more albums, and Liam is the guy left with a career. He’s the one with the pipes, the stage presence, the magnetism. He’ll be able to sing anyone’s songs and make a reasonable go of it. To paraphrase a rule of comedy, He could sing the phonebook and make it work. Noel, with his voice like a cold plate of beans, will founder and sink. He will never again have anyone to deliver his product in quite the way little brother can do it. And since it appears that his songwriting chops are fading, his later career will hinge on one thing, presentation, pity innit. Sure they have one or two albums left in them, but at this point, who really cares?

Stick a fork in ‘em.

---

Autor: Geoffrey Woolf

Quelle: cdconsumer.com