Oasis - Is anyone still listening?

[boxofslice]

So another Oasis record is out but I have to ask - is anyone really still listening? I've never been a fan, a few of their singles I've thought were ok but nothing has really blown me away, nothing to make me think they are worthy of all that adulation. Sure back in '94 they may have seemed exciting considering what was around musically at the time but now? They seem to still be playing that same old song, releasing the same old album, still trying to say something controversial but surely, to my ears anyway, it just sounds tired out now. Stagnated is probably a more appropriate word whereas their old sparring partner from the Britpop days has gone on to more musically diverse and exciting areas.
Why does the music press still get worked by a new release? It feels to me as though their fans buy the records out of habit rather than wanting to hear something new.

Anyway here's their new single if you want.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/cfo0iv

[Jemble Fred]

Definitely Maybe is definitely DEFINITELY the most overrated album of all time, but their second two are personal favourites of mine. The next two... had their moments. Is this album their sixth or seventh? I'm predicting it will be along the lines of the previous couple anyway – one or two very good songs lost amidst lots of squealing noise.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I still love the first album but consider the rest of their output to be mostly shite. Can't believe they were my favourite band of all time from age 17-19, still have all the books/calendars/posters/vids/t-shirts/newspaper clippings that I got when I was their "biggest fan".

[purlieu]

The first two are classics, and I can make an excellent album out of the three middle records.  Don't Believe The Truth, while not quite a return to form, is really enjoyable and has some of their best moments on.  The new one, according to Noel, is quite 'experimental' and not very radio friendly.
I barely listen to them anymore but I'll end up buying it, just cuz I have the other six and there'll probably be a couple of really good songs on it.

[BJB]

I defintitly maybe* would call myself an Oasis fan. And was pretty pissed off when

A) Tickets dissapeared in under an hour

B) There NOT playing in Manchester, of all places!


But yeah, they are quite homogenous sometimes. I saw the video for that new single last night on channel 4. And was a little underwhelmed. Seeing as how Noel promised something on the scale of "Be Here Now", what with over the top arrangments and that. Basiccly everything on a HUGE scale.

I'll be buying this new album, but i know for certain it wont live up to there 94-95 era.



*Just in case that rather bad pun confused anyone, i am an Oasis fan.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I will say this for Oasis, they got me out of my heavy metal phase, inspired me to go out with friends and be "mad for it" instead of sitting in my room with the curtains closed listening to Nirvana, and made me get out a lot of my parents old Who/Beatles/Jam/Stones records. However, as I modeled myself on Liam for a while I really was an annoying tit, wearing John Lennon shades indoors and being really arrogant to everyone.

[23 Daves]

I used to be a fan, but the enthusiasm I had has drained away slowly over the years.  The final straw was probably an underwhelming gig at Finsbury Park attended by loads of shaven-headed, tattooed wankers who were throwing plastic bottles of piss everywhere.  Yes, I did get a direct hit, and no, it's not exactly the band's fault - but the fact I got soaked by urine just as Noel was playing his wanky song about his recent divorce to Meg Matthews did tend to sum a certain something up.  "What am I doing stood here in a park in London reeking of somebody else's piss listening to a man groaning on about his ex?" I thought. "Even tramps try to avoid situations like these".

They still put out the odd single I like, but their lowly status on my Last Fm chart shows how much I've cared over the last couple of years.  I think I've probably played my own copy of "Morning Glory" once in the last ten years, just because a lot of the tracks on it seem absolutely inescapable outside anyway.  I'm sure it isn't only a day since I last heard "Don't Look Back In Anger" or "Wonderwall", but it really feels like it.  I think I generally deal badly with music which other people play to death for years on end, until I reach a point where I can't be bothered anymore (for instance, despite being a massive Pulp fan I almost never play "Common People" or "Disco 2000", even though I did when they first came out). 

[El Unicornio, mang]

Oh, just to add one more thing I forgot about, Oasis always did really good B-sides (inspired by The Smiths, according to Noel), in fact I think the B-sides collection they released is better than any of their studio albums (although it's missing 'Alive' which I really like). If they could come up with quality like that on every album I think they'd be one of the best bands around.

[weirdbeard]

The first single is, in Noel's own words' "the same as all our other first singles", but the rest of the album promises to be a bit different.  Well, that's what they've said anyway, although the next single is going to be an "obligatory, lighter in the air John Lennon moment".  With a John Lennon sample.  Written by Liam.

Noel's called quite a bit of the record groove-ridden and slightly dancy and half the record is getting remixed by various producers for the box-set.  So there will be something slightly different on there.

Anyway, here's a Noel written and sung album track - Falling Down.  There's a Chemical Brothers remix of it out on the internet as well.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/nkn77r

[PaulTMA]

Does the single contain a variation on the phrase "we've got to find a better day/way"?  They started to lose it when they didn't use that on every other song they released.

[chand]

I'll always have a soft spot for them. They were the first band I ever got into and I learned to play the guitar from them due to their pleasingly simple chord shapes. I just don't particularly want to listen to them now. They feel like a part of my 1994-1997 life which doesn't really fit in with where I'm at now. But I'll always have fond memories of when they were massive; the excitement of 'Be Here Now's release on the day of my exam results, walking down the street with a vaguely monkey-ish swagger listening to 'D'You Know What I Mean?', laughing over their stupid interviews in the NME at school, hearing 'Half The World Away' in a slightly melancholy drunk moment on a beach in Tenerife, taping their gigs off the radio and re-listening to the point where I could remember all the bits of between-song banter...

The other day I heard 'Slide Away' on the radio and had a nostalgic moment in a 'man, I loved this song' way. I wouldn't want to see them live though now. They're kind of like an old girlfriend where it's probably better to cling to your rose-tinted memories than it would be to actually get back together with them and realise that your personalities don't match any more and you have nothing to say to each other and the sex is slightly disappointing.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I didn't realise they were still going.

[Captain Crunch]

Apparently, that mythical Ride reunion tour is looking pretty likely once this Oasis tour is out of the way.  Apparently. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

The other day I heard 'Slide Away' on the radio and had a nostalgic moment in a 'man, I loved this song' way.

That came up on random on my mp3 player yesterday and it still sounded great.

The last time I saw them live they were woeful, but I'd still rate their mid-afternoon slot in King Tuts Tent in the first T in the Park in 1994 as one of my favourite ever gigs.  Cigarettes & Alcohol sounded pretty immense.  I suppose I'm quite lucky to have seen them a few times during the (quite exciting) first 12 months of their existence, as every time I saw them from about mid-1995 onwards (starting with that year's Glastonbury) they were average at best (and I include the Maine Road gig in that assessment).  For me at least, the wheels fell off somewhere around about the release of Some Might Say.

[Lord Summerisle]

NEVER liked them, even when "wonderwall" was out, all that Beatles posturing boiled my piss..I could never get over the fact that this was, in my opinion, an average pub rock band trying to align themselves in some bizaare way with one of the great bands in rock history, it was really quite strange what with all the Lennon shades and psychedelic videos that what you were dealing with was essentially soccer stadium singalongs and nothing even remotely classic ... is that harsh?

[djtrees]

NEVER liked them, even when "wonderwall" was out, all that Beatles posturing boiled my piss..I could never get over the fact that this was, in my opinion, an average pub rock band trying to align themselves in some bizaare way with one of the great bands in rock history, it was really quite strange what with all the Lennon shades and psychedelic videos that what you were dealing with was essentially soccer stadium singalongs and nothing even remotely classic ... is that harsh?

Nope 100% spot on. Unmitigated shite for gobshites from the very start.

[The Mumbler]

I did rather like them up to and including Some Might Say, but I never bought their status as saving the British music industry, as some did. I bought Definitely Maybe on the same day as Echobelly's Everyone's Got One. I quite liked the bare-faced plagarism and big choruses, but always felt - even when I liked them - that they lacked the colour and dynamism of, say, Blur or Pulp. For me, Pulp breaking through was more satisfying. And I always felt sad that, partly because of Oasis's "you-know-where-we-stand" stance, the music press (and, fatally, Creation) started to shun guitar bands who had any imagination at all. OK, so The Boo Radleys didn't want to be pop stars, but for their own label to lose sight of originality in such a big way was heartbreaking.

[Whug Baspin]

NEVER liked them, even when "wonderwall" was out, all that Beatles posturing boiled my piss..I could never get over the fact that this was, in my opinion, an average pub rock band trying to align themselves in some bizaare way with one of the great bands in rock history, it was really quite strange what with all the Lennon shades and psychedelic videos that what you were dealing with was essentially soccer stadium singalongs and nothing even remotely classic ... is that harsh?

Not harsh! can't better that. I had a job stacking shelves when Wonderwall was released. It was being played every 3rd song on the local radio station, that and '2 Princes' a year earlier. It still triggers very deep feelings of despair now when I hear them.

[Spiteface]

I did rather like them up to and including Some Might Say, but I never bought their status as saving the British music industry, as some did. I bought Definitely Maybe on the same day as Echobelly's Everyone's Got One. I quite liked the bare-faced plagarism and big choruses, but always felt - even when I liked them - that they lacked the colour and dynamism of, say, Blur or Pulp. For me, Pulp breaking through was more satisfying. And I always felt sad that, partly because of Oasis's "you-know-where-we-stand" stance, the music press (and, fatally, Creation) started to shun guitar bands who had any imagination at all. OK, so The Boo Radleys didn't want to be pop stars, but for their own label to lose sight of originality in such a big way was heartbreaking.

That's actually in interesting way of looking at Oasis/Creation.  Along with McGee selling 49% of the label to Sony, Oasis probably stopped Creation going under.  The thing about that though, is a lot of the great Creation albums were before then - Loveless, Screamadelica etc, at a time when Creation seemingly didn't give a fuck about their money troubles - look at how much money My Bloody Valentine spent to record Loveless and Alan McGee may now claim MBV were a joke, but he still gave Kevin Shields money, almost bankrupting him in the process.  That kind of stuff never happened post-Oasis.  That wasn't what killed creation, the momumental failures of late 90's Creation did that (Mishka, Kevin Rowland in a dress etc).

Getting back on topic, I find it hilarious that whenever Oasis have a record out, people start saying "does anyone care".  The fact that people still react to the news of a new Oasis album and tour says "yes" to me.  When they do something and NO ONE reacts to it, then you can say no one cares.  About 12 years ago, Oasis were a hugely important band to me, in the sense that they were a stepping stone into "indie" music, and the other stuff I would eventually get into.  Having heard the new single, I cannot say it excites much for me, not as much as hearing live versions of the new Smashing Pumpkins, albeit badly recorded on youtube.  Still a good live band if you get them on a good night.  That said I enjoyed a Noel Gallagher solo set I saw in 1998 more than the 3 Oasis gigs I've seen.

[The Mumbler]

That wasn't what killed creation, the momumental failures of late 90's Creation did that (Mishka, Kevin Rowland in a dress etc).

Partly true, although as David Cavanagh's marvellous book on Creation points out, the failure of, say, Heavy Stereo to land any hit singles is compounded by the label spending Oasis-type money on promoting what was, in truth, a pretty ordinary band. And of course, why were Creation spending Oasis-type money to get hit singles? Was that the point of Creation? (Not that "going bankrupt" was the point of Creation either, but you get my meaning.)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Ridiculous band who never had anything interesting to say. Perfect for mundane nobodies who aren't even intelligent enough to mourn their own existence.

The cardinal sin of courting controversy then having bugger all to say once they've hijacked the limelight. Cheerless, talentless nobodies.

[Jemble Fred]

Interesting how the few Oasis haters here can't seem to knock the band without mindlessly attacking their fans – which seems to include about two-thirds of the people who've contributed to this thread. I'm surprised by how many Verbwhores seem to still like them, far more than me, as I'd say I was entirely ambivalent by now. Can't even be bothered to check out the new single, which is only a click or two away.

[mrClaypole]

Ive never liked Oasis, not even when they were at their all conquering high.
There are just too many crimes against them to list, but I suppose the biggest for me is the fact they killed Creation records off.

[Beagle 2]

Ridiculous band who never had anything interesting to say. Perfect for mundane nobodies who aren't even intelligent enough to mourn their own existence.

Fucking hell, shurrup! You sound like you about five years ago!

Every criticism levelled at them in this thread is basically fair enough, but I still had a fantastic time being into them as a teenager and bought into the hype to an extent. The first two albums still stand up, and I think you can pick three or four brilliant songs from any new album amongst the tired old beatles references and diddle diddle guitar solos. Force of Nature and The Importance of Being Idle being two of my favourite songs they've ever done.

New single's kind of... meh, ok, very radio friendly and pretty bland but a nice sort of relentless beat. That Noel song is poo though.

When Noel says it's going to be "psychedelic" and "experimental", he actually means the same old meat and two veg songs but with a few "Zwoooo" noises that he got a sound engineer to put over the top and a token backwardsy bit between songs, he's not talking Carnival of Light....

[CaledonianGonzo]

Ridiculous band who never had anything interesting to say.

I'd usually let this one slide - along with the assertion that those folk who've expressed a one-time fondness for them in this thread are mundane nobodies - but I find it a trifle rich coming from someone with a fondness for inteminable, noodly, ambient music.  What precisely, seeing as you deem it so important, have bands like The Orb ever said?

Oasis are not profound - on that you, me and Noel Gallagher can agree - but they can be and have acted as a soundtrack to good times, in the same way that much of music does - from early rock'n'roll through to just about every flavour of dance music you'd care to name.  At their very best, they did manage to tap into something primal, something that spoke not necessarily to the mind but to the soul.  They removed texture and colour from their music, which could and does often render it grey and commonplace, but when it clicked and the guitary adrenaline kicked in, it could be a very thrilling noise indeed.  See also, to a far greater and more consistent extent, The Stooges, The Sex Pistols, The Who, AC/DC, QOTSA, etc.

As jemfred says, the ad hominems are a bit thick on the ground in here.

[boxofslice]

Part of the point of my original post is that they've never done anything interesting musically. Yeah they've had number ones and managed to sell out fields but nothing outstanding in the studio. They're the type of band who are happy to plod out the same old record every couple of years happy in the knowledge that their die hard fans will buy it and they'll make up the cash on the tour.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I must say, I would look on anyone with suspicion who listened to music because they were looking for some kind of important "message".

[CaledonianGonzo]

Part of the point of my original post is that they've never done anything interesting musically. Yeah they've had number ones and managed to sell out fields but nothing outstanding in the studio. They're the type of band who are happy to plod out the same old record every couple of years happy in the knowledge that their die hard fans will buy it and they'll make up the cash on the tour.

I definitely lost interest when that became apparent - but there was a moment between the release of Shakermaker and the debut album, when demo versions of Columbia and Cigarettes & Alcohol were doing the rounds when it seemed like they could well evolve into something special.

However, sometimes I'm happy with backwards-looking, reactionary, cliched rock'n'roll music - and tracks like Slide Away - sounding as it does like something Crazy Horse would be proud of - very much tickled my fancy during the heady summer of 1994.

[ziggy starbucks]

I must say, I would look on anyone with suspicion who listened to music because they were looking for some kind of important "message".

be here now's biggest fan

[Beagle 2]

very much tickled my fancy during the heady summer of 1994.

Timing had a lot to do with it for me. What a shit year. I was a massive Nirvana and Manics fan, and we know what happened there. I was a massive F1 fan and Senna carked it. Then my parents split up. For a band to suddenly come along with feelgood songs, that actually enjoyed being famous and stated their intention to have a bloody good time was an absolute godsend.