McGee sees a mirage at Oasis

Published on Friday 3 October 2008 09:46

IN his weekly Guardian music blog, Alan McGee tells us that new Oasis release Dig Out Your Soul is "tremendous".

He goes on to opine that, "They have re-imagined their discography and made their true follow-up to What's The Story Morning Glory, completing the elusive and perfect rock trilogy that began with Definitely Maybe".

Oh Alan. It's been a quite some time since you harked on about the band you yourself discovered. And here we all were, thinking you'd moved on to Glasvegas.

Fair enough, signs are promising, from the little I've heard of the album. But isn't this always the case with Oasis?

A blinding lead single comes out before the album, and everyone (lately just self-proclaimed rock god Noel Gallagher himself) gets overexcited, claiming the band have found their mojo. Here's how it works. New Oasis album leads to much hype among fans, critics and the band themselves in lead up and aftermath of release only to be denounced as sub-standard by fans, critics and the band themselves a year later.

So anyway, McGee then goes off about how "Throughout their history Oasis have captured the pop zeitgeist as a band that combine the best elements of the Beatles and Sex Pistols to emerge as this generation's Rolling Stones". Just as you're thinking he's having a laugh, he takes it further. "Maybe it is their lucky seventh album?" he writes. "The Beatles and the Stones released Revolver and Beggar's Banquet respectively, both were album number seven, and Dig Out Your Soul is on a par with both in terms of classic songwriting".

I must admit, I stopped reading here, because this is just rubbish really, isn't it?

I mean, seriously, has someone been at the hyperbole pills?

The Beatles evolved from Please Please Me to The White Album, while Jagger and Richards started out as poor imitation blues boys before going on to write some of the best rock and roll songs of all time.

And so what, Alan? Dig Out Your Soul is the best Oasis album since What's the Story Morning Glory?

A difficult challenge that is not.