Eat Your Heart Out

SURPRISE OF THE YEAR? QUITE POSSIBLY.

By Neale Lytollis

I am often asked by German friends what it was like living in the UK during the heady days of Britpop when the UK was the coolest place in the world again; a buzzing hotbed of mid-90s creativity affecting literature, fashion and art but whose main outlet was music and scores of Next Big Things seemed to be releasing classic albums on an almost daily basis.

The very same friends are a little disappointed when I answer: ?Well, it was OK.? I?m sure they seem to think that I spent my days shopping with Suede, had a quick cuppa round at Damon Albarn?s and then partied the night away with Ocean Colour Scene and Cast. But I was a kid living in Newcastle ? a far cry from the glitz and glamour of the media circuit of London where Cool Britannia only affected the bands themselves and the NME staff writers.

However, one thing does stand out from that period as being phenomenally significant and that was What?s the Story?Morning Glory, an album that surely needs no introductions whatsoever but just in case it passed you by it was the second LP from Oasis. That was THE record of the times?our Sgt. Pepper?s if you like?it was the record against which every other LP in the Britpop movement was compared. It was the soundtrack of my generation and thirty years from now it will still be in the Top Ten Greatest Records of All Time lists that all those silly magazine obsess about.

Even if you weren?t a great fan of Liam and Noel and their boozy, loutish scallywag ways you simply couldn?t get away from that record. It was everywhere you went, every time you switched on the radio something from the LP was playing and the incredible Don?t Look Back in Anger more or less became the idiom with which we chose to live our lives. Yes, if one thing stands out more than anything else from that period it?s being 15, more than a little na?ve and planning our lives in the 6th Form common room while that played on in the background.

But whereas their arch enemies Blur tweaked their formula every couple of years to stay ahead of the game and experiment with different genres, Oasis seemed hell-bent on doing What?s the Story? all over again. The release of their follow up, Be Here Now, was probably the most hotly anticipated event since the moon landings?and turned out to be one of the most crushing disappointments of my teenage years.

Where we all expected a vibrant, relevant, ball-breaking record which would speak to us as much as its predecessor had, what we actually ended up with was a fat, flabby bowl of cold semolina which turned our stomachs and made us start listening to Kula Shaker all over again. There?ve been numerous Oasis LPs since then of course, alternating between over-inflated and turgid, still desperately hanging onto the coat tails of 1995, still saying nothing more than ?help, we?ve lost the plot.? And now 2008 sees the release of yet another one entitled, Dig Out Your Soul.

And you know what? It?s actually pretty good. The guys have actually decided to expand a bit on what they do and experiment with a different sound. OK, it?s still sufficiently similar to be recognisably Oasis but nevertheless they finally seem to have forgotten all about 1995, have wiped the slate clean and started afresh. And the results are surprisingly appealing.

Admittedly the Well For Oasis, It?s Pretty Good school of thought might be like getting a spacker kid to draw a big purple square on a piece of paper and calling it an apple and then you could say ?Well it might not look much like an apple but for Drooly Johnny it?s pretty good? but that?s missing the point. Forget about Britpop, forget about 1995, forget all those dreadful records since What?s the Story? ? this is actually a good LP. Not because of or despite the fact that it?s Oasis but just because it is.

Check it out?you might be as surprised as I was.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 3:56 amand is filed under neale lytollis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.