Blind Faith
Latin Percussion? Village Green psychedelia? The Velvets? What's going on? Pat Gilbert on that 'difficult' sixth album.

Oasis ****

In the good old days, most musicians had crashed by their mid-thirties and formed a super-group with pop-star mates. This is exactly what Noel & Liam have done , only by stealth. These days, not only do they feature Gem & Andy Bell, but also genetically as near as dammit a Beatle. To those who saw Oasis at Glastonbury 2004, Zak Starkey's recruitment looked a little ill-advised. The drummer - last seen powering The Who - did little to ease the leaden thump that has long mired the group's Big Rock Number live and on record.

Yet something astonishing has happened: Zak's arrival has coincided with Oasis's reinvention as an olde English psychedelic combo, all acoustic guitars, Mellotron, tambourine, jugband stomps, wonky Ringo drums, piano, harmonica and layers of needling electric six-string. OK, some of DBTT seems like business as usual, but much suggests that Oasis have finally discovered what they do best - a kind of scratchy mix of Kinks and Small Faces pop, with a dash of T.Rex and Rubber Soul. To start with, the not-so-good. The weaker songs here are the rockers including opener TUTS and, in parts, new single Lyla. It's not just the songs themselves (accomplished but fairly predictable), but Liam's voice. Thrown into relief by his more subtle performances elsewhere, it grates with that over-familiar "soonshiiine" drawl you've heard a million times. He's more classy and complex on self-penned songs, particularly the frantic, percussion-heavy TMOS and the best song The La's never wrote, LLAB, with it's waltzing acoustic riff, odd chord shifts and undulating harmonies. On LTBL, the momentous, rousing closer sung by both Gallaghers, Liam hasn't sounded so genuinely moved by one of Noel's lyrics since Live Forever & Stand By Me.

The democratic writing policy and beat-combo feel underlines the sense of a real group, far more so than '02's HC. Gem & Noel deserve special praise - Gem for the understated, layered, squirly Taxman guitar that lends much of this record it's atmospheric, Albion-psych feel, and Noel for conjuring some mature, unexpected jewels, namelt the Velvets-inspired MF (he's finally mastered the half-rhyme: "You get your God from a paper bag, and your history from the UJ"), POTQ (percussion by Cuban legend Lenny Castro) and TIOBI, a kind of Kinksy rag, in which Noel's warm falsetto grows a lovely, tawny edge. Magical.

Hardy nay-sayers won't be converted but, in tuning in and turning down, Oasis have produced their best in almost a decade.

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Quelle: Mojo