Heathen Chemistry by Oasis (2002)

This was meant to be the album where Oasis went all grown up, if that means having an album which is largely boring they succeeded totally.

The album opener and lead single, The Hindu Times, is a fantastic way to open the album and has a simple but killer guitar riff that stays in your head long after the song has finished.
Force Of Nature is next and is a Noel mid-paced bore of a song. It's bland, if you like your songs bland fear not because there's plenty more bland songs coming up folks!
Hung In A Bad Place has a bit more to it but still resides in the town of bland-ville. I got the feeling that on this song Oasis were trying to sound like The Rolling Stones, I'll leave that up to you if you think that's a good thing or not.
The album highlight is next, Stop Crying Your Heart Out is the best slow song they've ever done. This song is virtually perfect, the lyrics, music, production..everything.
Songbird is next...another Liam song and another embarrassment to listen to. It's not quite as bad as Little James but it's getting there.
Little By Little is another bore chore to listen to. It's a predictable song which belongs on a Take That or Westlife album.
Following Little By Little is a short one minute instrumental called A Quick Peep. Well i had a quick peep and it was a bit pointless so onto the next song!
(Probably) All In The Mind is guess what?..... Yes bloody boring!!! I challenge you to try and remember this song less than five minutes after listening to it.
The next song is She Is Love is a quaint enough little Noel-sung tune. It's ok-ish but is really only B-side material.
Born On A Different Cloud is another tune written by Liam... and this time he gets it right. This is a great song with tonnes of atmosphere, even Noel has said he was proud of Liam when he heard this song in it's entirety.
For the last track, Better Man we get a return to Boresville. With a bit of better mixing and production this could have been a great song.
So that's Heathen Chemistry... it has three great songs on it... out of eleven. Not good enough by a long shot and it makes for poor value for money.  2/5

Familiar To Millions by Oasis (2000)

Whilst the quality of their albums may have dipped somewhat this live album showed that Oasis still had 'it' live.
From the first moment when Liam says 'Hello Manchester' to the Wembley crowd you know you're going to have a good time listening to this.
With their two new members (Andy Bell and Gem Archer) firmly bedded in Oasis deliver a performance of power and class. Virtually every song on here is delivered to perfection and a few on here are actually better than their album versions, the best two being Who Feels Love? and Roll With It. I even don't mind the version of Champagne Supernova on here!
Tracklisting: Go Let It Out, Who Feels Love?, Supersonic, Shakermaker, Acquiesce, Gas Panic!, Roll With It, Wonderwall, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Don't Look Back In Anger, Live Forever, Champagne Supernova, Rock n Roll Star.  4/5

Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants by Oasis (2000)

 Three years after the overblown Be Here Now Oasis returned with this...

Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants is not a bad album, there are five stellar songs on here that would grace anyones' album any day, four that are average and one that is so bad it makes me want to vomit listening to it...
The album opener is a great way to start. Fuckin In The Bushes has thunderous drums and catchy as hell guitar riffs all laced with samples which are funny, god knows where they're from though!
Go Let It Out is next and you can see why it was the lead single from the album. It's led by Liams' sneering vocals and a loud bassline all held together by driving acoustic guitars and a catchy chorus. Great stuff.
Who Feels Love is a mellower affair but is still one of the best tracks on the cd.
Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is is a traditional Oasis guitar track which struggles to get above average and sounds a bit paint-by-numbers Oasis. It's listenable but nowt more than that.
Track 5 on the album is Little James, which was Liams' first song to make it onto an Oasis album. Words cannot describe how awful this is. The lyrics are so awful they make me squirm with embarrassment. Why the hell is this song on here? Did Noel have a shortage of songs? Were they high whilst recording it? Easily the worst Oasis track ever, I would rather listen to Westlife than that again.
The next track is the best (talk about chalk and cheese!!), Gas Panic is simply awesome with a fantastic uplifting guitar solo halfway through. If anyone ever says they hate Oasis play them this track and they will be converted. Trust me.
Where Did It All Go Wrong? is one of those boring Noel sung ballads which has good lyrics but they are not enough to rescue it from the clutches of avaregeness. (if that's even a word)
Sunday Morning Call is another Noel sung one. This one is great though which this time has the melodies to match the great lyrics.
I Can See A Liar is yet more paint-by-numbers Oasis. Boring Boring Boring.
The album finishes with Roll It Over which attempts to be another Champagne Supernova. The trouble is I don't like Champagne Supernova so this one doesn't click with me.

So, Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants whilst being very up and down, still has it's classics and is better than Be Here Now any day of the week.   3/5

The Masterplan by Oasis (1998)

Back in the day (well 1994 - 1995) any Oasis single was an event, the main reason being that you knew you were going to get some top quality B-sides -- and this compilation proves it.
The Masterplan is a collection of the best b-sides from 1994 to 1997. And on the whole it's bloody good.
The first track Acquiesce, a rare song in which both the Gallaghers sing, should have been a single in it's own right.
There's some other cracking songs on here too (Underneath The Sky, Talk Tonight, Half The World Away, The Masterplan and Headshrinker) and let's not forget their ballsy version of I Am The Walrus, a song that no other band would even think of doing live!
The two weakest tracks, Going Nowhere and Stay Young are from the Be Here Now era. In fact the B-sides from the Be Here Now album and onwards would be patchy at best. (Although check out Let's All Make Believe from the Go Let It Out single stands out as their best b-side and also Liams' best ever vocal performance).
This collection of B-sides is actually better than some of Oasis 'proper' albums and still makes for a good listen.   4/5

Be Here Now by Oasis (1997)

The one where it all started to go wrong....

Two years after the massive success of Morning Glory this album was released in a massive explosion of publicity, it's just a shame that this doesn't live up to the hype.
This album is just overflowing with Noels' ego. During the recording of this someone should have had the balls to say to him 'Noel this song is way too overblown and too long' or 'Noel mate this song just ain't good enough'.  But because no-one did we are left with this....
The album kicks off with D'You Know What I Mean?  This song had the potential to be a classic but it's too long and way too over-produced. The song needs three minutes taking out and do we really need all those guitar parts and solos? No we don't.
Next up is My Big Mouth which is a heavy track which they got just right. It's an excellent uplifting track. Turn the volume up to 11 when listening to this one.
Magic Pie is a noel-sung boring piece of music. It just goes on and on and on and on... I dare anyone to listen to this all the way through without at least contemplating pressing the skip button.
Stand By Me is not too good. At its heart there is a good song trying to get out through all the over-production. A shame. Catch chorus though.
I Hope, I Think, I Know and The Girl In The Dirty Shirt are both absolutely terrible. Just a mess of guitars with minimal tune. These tunes would just about have made B-sides two years earlier. These two tunes just validate the points made at the beginning of this review -- someone should have been having a word with Noel.
Fade In-Out is much better, this song showcases Liam's vocal talents and is one of his best ever performances.
Next up is a ballad, Don't Go Away. Oh my God this is really bad. It's just so cheesy. I don't mind ballads but they have to be done in the right hands, and this one hasn't.
The title track is quite good, it's catchy and is a bit of fun after the awfulness of the previous song.
It's ironic to me that the best track on the album, All Around The World, is the longest!! That's because this track suits being long, the rest don't. This is nine minutes of perfection and is up there with Oasis' best.
It' Gettin Better Man goes right back to the badness of other songs on this album. It's just so boring.
Lastly we are treated to as short reprise of All Around The World. It's a nice touch and means that you're not left with a nasty taste in your mouth after It's Gettin Better Man.

So that's it, Be Here Now. This had so much potential. After this Oasis just didn't seem the same, their first album that wasn't even good, never mind great. A shame.    2/5

(Whats The Story) Morning Glory by Oasis (1995)

A year after Deifinitely Maybe Oasis returned with this album, Morning Glory. It was THE album of 1995, selling millions and spawning four massive hit singles. But 16+ years later has time been kind to it?....

The album opener Hello is fantastic with it's loud guitars and Liam sounding angrier than ever. So what if it samples Gary Glitter it's still a great way to open the album.
Next up is Roll With It. This song sounded great back in '95, now it sounds a bit lame and is a bit throwaway.
The next two songs, Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger, need no introduction. They were classics then and they're classics now and they confirm the songwriting mightiness of Noel.
The following song Hey Now is ok I suppose but it's a bit overlong and a tiny bit bland.
Some Might Say is up next and is one of those songs best played at full whack -- another great song.
Cast No Shadow is a great album track and on any later Oasis album this would have been a single. This song is dedicated to Richard Ashcroft so it can hardly go wrong in my opinion. It's a good mellow alternative after the heavy bombast of the previous tracks.
She's Electric is really Digsy's part 2 but with funnier lyrics. It's ok but a poor relation with say Wonderwall or Hello.
Next up is the title track... Morning Glory is the best track on the album, it's loud and in your face right from the first note. As per usual the lyrics don't amount to much but who cares when the riffs and vocals are this good!
The last track, Champagne Supernova, is another one of those supposedly Oasis classics. I'm sorry but I just don't get it. It's an alright song but is two minutes too long and just doesn't do anything for me.

Overall this album stands the test of time and is still bloody good.    4/5

Definitely Maybe by Oasis (1994)

This first album from Oasis remains their best to this day.
From the first song 'Rock n Roll Star' it grabs you with it's sheer power, the lyric 'I'll be scraping your lives from the souls of my shoes tonight' gives a clue to the bands certainty of the big times coming their way.  The song closes with the mantra 'It's just rock n roll' repeated over crunching guitars.
Next up is 'Shakermaker', everyone knows that this is a rip-off of  'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' but the song is still a classic, catchy as hell.
The next tracks 'Live Forever' and 'Up In The Sky' are classics too, best played very loud.
'Columbia' is good but this version is nowhere near as good as the original white label version, it's a shame that it isn't on the album.
Next track is the best on the album... 'Supersonic' remains one of the bands best songs even with it's completely senseless lyrics.
'Bring It On Down' is a fast and heavy rock song again best played very loud. It's an excellent song, why the hell doesn't Noel write songs like this anymore?
So the first seven tracks on the album are nearly all true classics, from here though things start to take a little downward turn...
'Cigarettes and Alcohol' is meant to be this classic song but I just don't get it. Maybe it's because the guitar riff is robbed from T-Rex - and I bloody hate them and all glam rock with a passion.
'Digsy's Dinner' is a good but silly track but is a poor relation to some of the other songs on the album.
'Slide Away' is meant to be a classic too but for me it's just boring and Liams' voice sounds weak and whiny.
Last song 'Married With Children' is a slow acoustic song which while fairly good is really only B-side material.

So that's 'Definitely Maybe' --  most definitely a very good album. But it is a classic?  For it's place in musical history I would have to say yes... it's just a shame the last four tracks aren't as epic as the rest    4/5