The very first outing for Oasis Mk.II, with Gem Archer and Andy Bell replacing Bonehead and Guigsy, was inauspicious to say the least. With Liam’s gravelly voice increasingly showing the strains of endless cigarettes, the lumbering ‘Go Let It Out’ flirted with disaster but just about redeemed itself through some neat couplets (“ordinary people that are like you and me / we’re the builders of their destiny”). Ultimately a pretty bland aperitif for a similarly forgettable album, along with its two follow-up singles ‘Go Let It Out’ was quickly consigned to the scrapheap of Oasis history.
The infamous ‘Britpop wars’ of August 1995 was a distasteful incident of media-stoked rivalry, made worse by the fact that the singles that both Blur and Oasis put forward were by far the weakest each had released at that point in their careers. ‘Roll With It’ may be iconic, another vessel for the public’s memories of those heady days for British guitar music, but as a piece of music by itself, it sounds trebly and lightweight with the passage of time, and doesn’t stand up to the rest of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? Check out the ‘Top of the Pops’ performance for Noel and Liam swapping places and making a mockery of the show’s miming rules, if you want a smirk.
The first release from Heathen Chemistry, an album that went some way to repair Oasis’s reputation, was hailed as something of a return to form after a run of poorly-received singles since their heyday. ‘The Hindu Times’ stands up as a signpost as to where they were headed, combining the full-on rock of Definitely Maybe with hints of psychedelia they would pursue during the latter days of their career. Though it was eclipsed in the public’s mind by Heathen Chemistry’s other singles (seriously, would you remember the title if somebody played it to you?), it remains a solid if workmanlike effort.
The closing track, and final single, from Don’t Believe The Truth capped off a triumphant 2005 for Oasis, a year which saw them and their public reconnect with each other in a way they hadn’t truly done since the heady days of Knebworth. Seeing Liam and Noel share vocal duties for the first and only time on a single, ‘Let There Be Love’ was a slow-paced, lighters-aloft affair of the sort that they could knock out in their sleep by now.
An example of Noel at his most cynical and yet most effective, ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’ was objectively a by-the-numbers run through of the Gallagher book of emotional songwriting clichés. Spectral piano – check. Echoing call-and-response vocals – check. Skyscraping chorus – check… everything about it was aimed at your tear ducts, and all good sense told you to reject it. But it worked, purely because of Noel’s irrepressible, populist humanism and knack for a chorus you can bellow along to.
A stand-alone single release bridging Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory, Oasis decided to enter the race for Christmas Number 1 with this hastily-arranged, over-indulgent yet charming effort. Recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, it featured an extended strings-driven coda and hinted a cleaner sound to come, following their hiss-drenched debut. Crucially, it was innately melodic and irresistibly catchy, and demonstrated how sharp Noel’s songwriting was becoming that he could make something this good virtually at the drop of a hat.
One of the most direct displays of raw power Oasis ever made, the first single from Don’t Believe The Truth was one of those ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’ moments. Sheer retro hedonism designed for festival pogoing that channelled the percussive power of The Who, ‘Lyla’ also saw the classic Oasis logo on the front of a single for the first time since 1998, making that crucial connection in the minds of the record-buying public. Yes, it may have been predictable, but the full-on conviction of everybody involved made it so easy to get swept away in the moment.
Of all the shameless Beatles impersonations Oasis engaged in over the years, this was the most obvious instance ever. ‘I’m Outta Time’ was Liam’s personal tribute to his hero John Lennon: the atmosphere is unmistakably similar to ‘Jealous Guy’, with an ascending piano riff before the chorus taken from ‘A Day In The Life’; Liam’s vocal inflections are strained to sound as Lennon-esque as possible; hell, it even samples the great man himself from one of his last ever interviews in 1980. Despite all of this, it was unquestionably heartfelt and melodic, and one of the highlights from Dig Out Your Soul.
The last ever Oasis single (sniff!) was a curious beast, but one which finally delivered on Noel Gallagher’s endless promises that he would do something genuinely different with the band’s sound. Understated and consciously non-anthemic, with a sighing minor key vocal line by Noel (“catch the wheel that breaks the butterfly”) and a tumbling drum pattern, it even lent itself to a nifty remix by the Chemical Brothers. Also pointing the way forward for Noel’ solo outfit the High Flying Birds, it was incredibly the 23rd Top Ten hit Oasis had notched up in their 15 year history.
Liam’s songwriting gets a bad rap from almost everybody in the music press, but the two singles he penned for Oasis were actually quite striking. ‘Songbird’, the first of those, was a success because of its heartfelt simplicity and its sense of ‘the noble savage’, the revelation of the softer side to the confrontational frontman not noted for his sensitivity at any point in his career until this point. Not to mention a vast improvement on the laughable ‘Little James’ from SOTSOG, it was a pretty little ditty tapped for a quick single release nearly a year after Heathen Chemistry came out. A few more songs like this, and Beady Eye might not have been the disaster it was.
Tags: Andy Bell, Andy White, Chris Sharrock, Ed Biggs, feature, from worst to best, Gem Archer, Liam Gallagher, list, Noel Gallagher, Oasis, Oasis singles, Paul Arthurs, Paul McGuigan, singles, The Student Playlist, Tony McCarroll, Zak Starkey
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