Under a sea of blue lights, you are playing guitar to a beautiful song that some in the crowd have been waiting to hear live for over a decade. As the festival crowd roars and shakes, you begin singing a backup harmony as the azure fog inundates you. “You know you should, so I guess you might as ““” is a lyric from “Morning Glory,” off of 1995’s seminal “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” that never reaches completion because an unidentified man has emerged from the background to push Noel Gallagher, guitarist and songwriter of Oasis, onto the floor and into his monitors. After security whisks the man away and Gallagher, supported by a member of the stage crew, limps off, the band reemerges to finish their set though a post-show release reveals that Noel has to be hospitalized.
Oasis is a tough band. Liam and Noel Gallagher are not known to shy away from a physical or verbal fight, nor are they known for a lack of ego. And despite having been unable to live up to the success of their first two albums, the band has refused to get off the stage or out of the recording studio. Despite bloated claims from the Oasis camp, “Dig Out Your Soul” is not the most progressive album of the decade, nor is it the next “Abbey Road.” However, it is pretty good. Doing what they do they do best, Oasis masterfully appropriates their sixties influences, namely The Beatles, choosing to highlight the more loose and psychedelic moments of the Fab Four’s discography.
In a recent interview, Gallagher stated his intent to create songs that avoided traditional song structure for a cohesive album that “had a groove … that was more hypnotic.”
In album opener “Bag It Up,” Gallagher sings from the surreal: “Someone tell me I’m dreaming/The freaks are rising from the floor.” Long, winding and moody, “The Turning” emphasizes not only the priority on groove and feel, but ““ by ending with a piece of “Dear Prudence” ““ on influence. While Oasis has never been evasive or apologetic about their Beatles obsession, the album’s consistent homage to the fellow Brits may be the skeleton holding the album together. Energetic “The Shock of the Lightning,” the album’s only real radio-ready single, reminds us that “Love is a litany/A magical mystery.”
Album highlight “I’m Outta Time” is a sensitive swaying ballad about leaving which instantly recalls John Lennon at his most pensive and vulnerable in “Love,” an association instantly affirmed with an ending clip of Lennon in his final interview. “The Nature of Reality” taps the tambourine and a general ’60s rock theme of altering consciousness, while the drums in “Falling Down” are played by Ringo’s son, Zak Starkey.
Depending on how you feel about The Beatles and Oasis, and Oasis constantly drawing from the seemingly infinite well of genius that is The Beatles’ catalog, this album may or may not satisfy you. “Dig Out Your Soul” may seem like another nonsensical title by the band, but it is easy to excavate the “Rubber Soul.” Actually, to be fair and account for the album’s psychedelic groove, it is even easier to dig out “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”