Oasis - 'Shock Of The Lightning'
As sure as night follows day, spring follows winter and Madonna follows hot producers with a talent straw dangling from her teeth, a new Oasis album is always preceded by a great one-chord Oasis comeback single. The great one-chord Oasis comeback single is a ridiculously Oasis-y kind of song - kind of Oasis-squared - and one which goes back to the tatty old blueprint from which all Oasis songs are made, frames it, hangs it on the wall, and sets up sensitive mood lighting all around it.
The great one-chord Oasis comeback single is also usually the one Noel Gallagher says the band threw together in seconds at the last minute, and which he didn't really think that much of, dismissing it as lightweight and throwaway.
This merely serves to prove that you can be Noel Gallagher and be wrong, even though you might never admit it. It also sets up false expectations of just how great the band's new album is going to be.
So, 'The Hindu Times' suggested that the band were back on peak, snotty-rockin' form, and then 'Heathen Chemistry' proved otherwise, and then 'Lyla' did exactly the same thing for 'Don't Believe The Truth', with broadly similar results - only less so, to be fair.
Now we have this, a song which once again grabs you by the ears, tickles the back of your neck, and then brings a knee up into your face, repetitively, while pointing to the future and the past simultaneously and yelling "HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!" to anyone who will listen. Such are the joys of the great one-chord Oasis comeback single.
I guess it would be worth mentioning that the lolloping 'Lyla' beat has been replaced with a driving, 8-beats-to-the-bar rhythm, and that, if it's possible, all of the instruments are louder than usual. But this is missing the wider point.
The wider point is that this band are at their best when they're blamming out silly old throwaway rock 'n' roll songs. They CAN be very good at doing other types of music too, of course, but this is what they do BEST.
Enjoy it while it lasts, people, there won't be another one along for a couple of years.
Download: Out now
CD Released: September 29th
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 22nd Sep 2008, WinstonsZen wrote:It's a great single, once you let this song climb in and march around your brain in it’s Doc Martins and Sgt Pepper jacket, it’ll feel like a song you’ve screamed at the top of your lungs every Friday night for the last twelve years.
But then as you rightly point out, all Oasis albums are introduced with a great single.... this time however, I think the album might well surprise a few people.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)