This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
They may be bigger than Jesus, Mary and John Lennon back home, but try as they might, Oasis still haven’t managed to conquer America.
Maybe it’s their determinedly British sound and Mancunian accents that alienate Yankee ears. Or maybe folks were turned off by their clearly derivative knockoffs of Beatles classics. Or maybe it’s the fact that once they stormed to supersonic U.K. superstardom with Definitely Maybe in 1994, brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher instantly morphed into typically annoying rock stars — boozing, brawling brats whose loutish statements and public tantrums clearly evinced their disregard for their audience.
But that was then and this is now. Five years later, things are different. Professionally, the band has two new members — form Heavy Stereo guitarist Gem Archer and ex-Ride bassist Andy Bell — in place of Bonehead and Paul McGuigan, who left last year. Personally, the lads have also grown up come. Liam is married and a father. He and Noel seem to have supposedly ditched (or at least reined in) their nasty habits. And they appear to have a new philosophy when it comes to America: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
At least, that’s the subliminal message you get from the band’s fourth albm, Standing On The Shoulder of Giants (a quote from Isaac Newton that adorns Britain’s £2 coin). After half a decade of paying homage to The Beatles, Oasis have crossed the musical pond and issued their most contemporary, American-sounding album thus far. So much so, in fact, that at first, I almost thought I had been slipped a Black Crowes disc by mistake.
Check out album overture F—in’ In The Bushes and see what I mean. Jiving along to a fat, neck-snapping beat from drummer Alan White, Noel cranks up the treble, cranks down his E string and rips off a wickedly funky guitar lick straight from south of the Mason-Dixon line. That’s right, I said “funky” and “Noel” in the same sentence. And that’s just for starters. Next up, instand classic Go Let it Out samples the beat of Cajun classic I Walk On Gilded Splinters — the same song Beck sliced and diced for Loser. Who Feels Love visits Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love with its trippy, backward-guitar and sitar groove. Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is mines a garage-rock vein. I Can See A Liar has a chorus that wouldn’t be out of place on an old Aerosmith album.
Oddly, despite its old-school rock vibe, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants also boasts a cutting-edge sound, presumably thanks to the influences of producer Mark (Spike) Stent, wohse previous clients include U2 and Massive Attack. As you might reckon from his resumé, he lends an experimental electronica edge to the proceedings — Isle of Wight movie-dialogue samples, loops, backwards tape effects and such.
Still, it’s not like Oasis have turned into some weird hybrid of Grand Funk Railroad and The Chemical Brothers. At its root level, this album is another Brit-rock opus that treads a well-worn path through their familiar world of canyon-sized guitar licks, Beatles melodies, sweeping epic ballads — and, of course, lyrics so atrocious a teenage hippie would be embarrassed to sing them. “Is it any wonder why princes and kings are clowns that caper in their sawdust rings?” asks Noel — presumably rhetorically — in one track. “I can see a liar, sitting by a fire,” he nursery-rhymes in another (amazingly, without going on to detail the length of his nose). You wonder how Liam can stand it — until, that is, you come to his lyrical debut on Little James, a ballad for his son. “You live for your toys, even though they make noise,” he whines like a hungover dad. “Have you ever played with Plasticine, or even tried a trampoline?” Forget I said anything, Noel.
So maybe Standing On The Shoulder If Giants isn’t a perfect album. But after years of flipping their fans the bird — musically and literally — at least Oasis are finally trying. And that’s more than good enough for me.
