Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul (2008)

There's no denying the fact that the best Oasis albums are the first two albums. However, they do have some good music on their later albums as well. If the two first ones wouldn't be so perfect, I'm sure we would make a big deal out of these later albums as well. Dig Out Your Soul is the final Oasis album, released years after the band's golden years, at the time when the Gallagher brothers were mainly fighting and not getting along at all anymore. In some ways, Dig Out Your Soul is better than most other late Oasis albums and I think the reason for that is that Noel wanted to make a rocking album after many more acoustically oriented ones. Oasis is, after all, a rock band and that's what they do best. There are also a lot bigger orchestration on this album than on other late albums. I think it's appropriate that the band returned to its roots for the final album.



I remember really well where and when I bought this album. It was in Hong Kong in 2009. We found this tiny record store on the Hong Kong island where they sold China versions of CDs. They were surprisingly cheap and the CD cases were beautifully sturdy cardboard cases. The packaging is so far ahead of the notorious jewel case that I don't know why I didn't buy more albums from there. Maybe the selection wasn't that great after all.

The album begins with a rocking song Bag It Up that has some proper pounding rock rhythms that grow throughout the song. Liam's vocals are better than usual. The Turning goes slightly psychedelic with its sounds and the authentic piano gives nice spice for the sounds. This song reminds me of The Soundtrack of Our Lives. Waiting for the Rapture has some huge garage rock sounds which make me think of bands like The Black Keys or The Black Mountain. The Shock of the Lightning sounds most like the old Oasis, except the sounds are a bit too clean compared to the first two albums. The intensity is excellent though. I'm Outta Time is the first ballad on the album and it's really surprisingly good considering it's composed by Liam. It's actually really close to the best song on the album, which is saying something. (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady has some old-school blues sounds and muffled vocals. I think the song could change a bit more to make it a bit more interesting. Falling Down is one of the best songs on the album. There are some excellent psychedelic rhythms and intertwining melodies that make it sound truly special. To Be Where There's Life has some actual sitars on it, which is a bit obvious considering the constantly claimed associations between Oasis and The Beatles. Nevertheless, the song itself is not very Beatlesy and the hypnotic loops actually sound very good. Ain't Got Nothing is a proper aggressive rock song that has some excellent growling guitars. The Nature of Reality is another, kind of bluesy, rock song with amazing guitar sounds that really fill the room. The album ends with Soldier On, which is another song that sounds quite a lot like The Black Keys. However, the melancholic melodies reveal the trademark Oasis sound.

The album was marketed in UK by guerrilla spray tags that appeared in pavements across UK cities. In New York, songs were given to local buskers ahead of the release and they played the songs in the streets to promote the album. These kinds of marketing gags sound really great and surprising for a band as big as Oasis.

I don't think I've seen any music videos from this album since it was released at the time when MTV and other music channels were already mostly showing reality TV instead of music videos. The first one I found on Youtube is the video for I'm Outta Time. The video is beautifully shot black and white video of Liam singing a song with some kind of cowboy hat on. He's walking in mystical forest scenery with some castles and towns. There are also flowers that fly in the wind past in slow motion. This is a great farewell to a great band.

I have to admit that I've never really listened to these later Oasis albums that much, but whenever I do, I really do like them and I think they do deserve a bit more recognition than they usually get. I know I've been a bit harsh for some later Oasis records before, but it's just because in comparison to the first albums there's just not that kind of magic upon them. Nevertheless, Dig Out Your Soul is a fantastic rock album and a worthy farewell for Oasis.

Listen to the album on Spotify.