Oasis: Heathen Chemistry - 2002
It was popularly perceived that this was a "return to form" album after several years of disappearing up their own backsides. Oasis were supposed to have "gone back to basics" or whatever other cliché was trotted out. Admittedly it is less bloated than Be Here Now, but it still bears the hallmarks of any other Oasis album. Like The Rolling Stones, Oasis's output was instantly recognisable. The production/sound quality is muddy, it almost goes without saying.
The Hindu Times is a typically dense, bombastic piece of Oasis riffage - tinny, sratchy and "in your face". God knows what it was about, either but it makes for a tub-thumping, vibrant opener.
Force Of Nature begins with a toned-down Gary Glitter drum intro before braking out into a solid enough updated Slade-style rocker. Noel is on lead vocals on this one. Gem Archer's Hung In A Bad Place has a Ramones-style chugging riff and an energy about it that makes it pretty irresistible. Oasis were at their best when they were at their punkiest, for me.
Stop Crying Your Heart Out has a typical Oasis title and is also a familiar, hands-in-the-air stadium singalong power ballad. Despite that, it still captivates, from its guitar solo to its strings and, of course, Liam's sneery voice. It was arguably Oasis's last big classic ballad.
Liam's Songbird is a lively, country-ish acoustic number with a George Harrison-ish vocal, especially the way Liam enunciates "me". You know it when you hear it. As a song, it is, surprisingly, very jaunty and clap along.
Little By Little is another of those huge, chunky rock ballads, with a big, deep, rumbling bass line and a lower-key vocal from Noel, less grating than Liam, as usual. It is one of the album's best tracks. A Quick Peep is a short, upbeat, folky instrumental from bassist Andy Bell. It sounds vaguely Irish in places. (Probably) All In The Mind is full of familiar Oasis-by-numbers guitar-driven droning onslaught, not that that is a bad thing. You know what you're getting.
Noel is back on vocals on the pleasant, Paul Weller-ish and folky She Is Love. It is sort of Paul McCartney meets Ronnie Lane. A delightful little-mentioned gem. Liam is back for the last two songs - the psychedelic and blatantly Lennon-esque Born On A Different Cloud and the staccato, riffy rock of Better Man, which also owes a lot to Lennon.
The Beatles-ish ploy of having thirty minutes of silence before The Cage arrives was idiotic. Yeah yeah, very funny. That said, I like the gloomy, Joy Division feel of the track, a sombre, bassy instrumental.
Despite being a good album, like many Beatles albums, it had the feel of different members of the band contributing their own songs separately from each other, making it somewhat disparate. Having said, there is certainly a fair amount of variety on the album, Oasis were sometimes more versatile than they were ever given credit for.
