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England’s glory, Oasis, the Beatles of the ‘90s and beyond, introduce their double-disc greatest hits album Stop the Clocks with Rock and Roll Star.

It’s a smart and fitting choice, for nobody embraced the benefits of success better in their heyday than these cocky Brits.

This song is the aural equivalent of the Oasis attitude: brash, confident, celebratory and enjoyably arrogant. Like most of Oasis’ popular cuts, it has a raw, melodic cut mated to the strutting riffs.

And of course it has Liam Gallagher’s classic call, part appeal and proclamation. This style has won Oasis legions of fans, and the spectacle of the Gallagher brothers’ escapades has been a welcome diversion from the whiny ‘90s and the angst-ridden ‘00s.

These lads from Manchester openly draw their inspiration from the front of rock immortality, The Beatles. They do resemble the Fab Four in a sonic sense, but have stamped their own raucous melodic edge on the style. They play like they believe in themselves and have faith in the good time liberation that their rock brings to the believer.

If one follows the British rock scene, there’s always been a dividing line between bands from London and its suburbs and the rest of the country (or island, for that matter.) For a period in the ‘80s and ‘90s Manchester had a certain zeitgeist and became the new Liverpool, and the focus of a cool Britannia feeling that hadn’t been seen since the bright times of swinging London in the ‘60s. Manchester spawned influential groups such as The Stone Roses, The Smiths, Inspiral Carpets, (whom Noel Gallagher roadied for) and then Oasis. Did I forget The Bee Gees? That was a different decade!

There are others, but I can’t remember ‘em.

There might be something in the water in that northern town. It’s entirely in keeping with Oasis’ proud regionalism that they released a double hits CD.

It occurred to me in listening a few times to both sides that many people won’t be familiar with some of these songs. Songs such as The Importance of Being Idle, which sounds like it might’ve been conceived in 1965, but recorded in 2005. That notion might well apply to Oasis in general. But no matter, these are very smartly written and inspired-sounding pieces of song and production.

When Wonderwall comes drifting in after The Importance... then you can hear the effect and drive of the group’s spirit, and begin to connect the dots. The mood of Wonderwall is so strong that it can’t really be ignored whether you like the song or not. This is the same for Oasis’ music overall.

Every song on Stop the Clocks is written, played and presented as if it’s a huge hit waiting to be discovered, even though some of the material sounds unfamiliar. The songs have a sense of the grand and the gritty that can cause shrugging of the shoulders and acceptance of Oasis’ lofty ambitions and dreams. They have believability and their songs reflect this. Anyone else probably would have been content with a single disc hit release, but with 18 songs of this caliber it doesn’t matter. They fill the spaces with big numbers and stately noises.

Cigarettes and Alcohol defines their piratical and well-meaning takeover of rock and roll from the navel-gazing and over-sensitive concerns of the grunge era.

Supersonic and Acquiesce similarly carry themselves in a head-held-high swagger that rolls along like doors opening off a drab street into a pub pulsing with energy.

In The Masterplan they use this bold stroke in a different fashion, utilizing sparkling guitar hooks and acoustic textures.

This is the other side of Oasis; the yearning far-reaching spirit that inhabits Don’t Look Back in Anger, which could be an English football chant realized in music.

This liberating sound has been suggested as the real British national anthem, and contains the essence of what one writer calls “English Soul.” That could be a realistic summing up of Oasis’ sound and appeal.

Source: www.vernonmorningstar.com

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