If any of you were excited to see that the band Oasis is releasing a new album, “Dig Out Your Soul,” I’ll give you a piece of advice: buyer beware.
Ripe on the heels of the band’s 2005 release, “Don’t Believe the Truth,” which was voted the 15th greatest album released in Britain in the past 50 years, the brothers Gallagher have released something absolutely mediocre.
Based on Oasis’s 2008 North American Tour, the band doesn’t think much of the album either. Of the 22 songs on the set-list, only five come from the album.
These songs lack the heart, the toe-tapping sensibility and even the clever names of their predecessors. If you don’t believe the fact that the Jesus twins — the Gallaghers — have done wrong, compare the lyrics of “The Shock of Lightning” with those of “Wonderwall.”
In “The Shock of Lightning” Gallagher sings: “Comin’ up in the early morning / I feel love in the shock of the lightning / I fall into the blinding light / Come in, come out, come in, come out tonight.”
On the other hand, in “Wonderwall” he sings: “Backbeat the word was on the street / That the fire in your heart is out / I’m sure you’ve heard it all before / But you never really had a doubt / I don’t believe that anybody feels / The way I do about you now.”
Five other songs on the set list come from Oasis’s 1995 release, “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory.” Those songs are actually good: You might say they are the penultimate favorites of the entire Oasis fan-base. Hits like “Champagne Supernova,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and, of course, “Wonderwall” actually deserve your attention.
For the sake of your ears and your wallet, don’t buy this album. Don’t drop $80-plus on concert tickets. Download Oasis’s best-of album, “Stop the Clocks,” off of Ruckus for free.
