The world according to Oasis is as follows: they are the best rock band that ever was, iss and will be. Forget the ego landing with Robbie Williams; the modern ego was audaciously introduced to the world alongside the emergence of the Gallagher brothers. That sentiment certainly seems far more ridiculous now than it might have 10 years ago in the band's glory days, but the self-adoration of the brothers has hardly faded. To their credit, the refusal to discard their delusions of grandeur has led to their first solid album in years - "Heathen Chemistry."
"Chemistry" is a critical album for Oasis, and although either Gallagher brother would undoubtedly speak of eternal status as rock icons, the band's new music displays a glimmer of understanding of the situation at hand. Gone is the cushion of success of their first two albums - "Be Here Now" was perhaps only debatably a disaster, but "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants" left no doubt of the band's plummet from the creative heights they were previously able to attain, particularly with 1995's "(What's the Story?) Morning Glory." Between that and a substantial line-up shake-up, the band found itself in a sizable pit of naysayers happily singing the band's demise, or more specifically, the fall of the Gallagher brothers. Amazingly enough, "Chemistry" presents us with an actual group effort of songwriting and producing, undoubtedly the result of realizing that assistance from one's bandmates is the best way to climb out of said pit.
Left at the bottom, however, is the band's former songwriting powerhouse, Noel. Unlike prior albums, Noel's contributions are no longer the shining beacons of musical epiphany, but instead are somewhat formulaic and uninspired catastrophes. "Stop Crying Your Heart Out," albeit quite lovely, is painfully similar to "Don't Go Away" and "Stand by Me," both of "Be Here Now," while the drab "Force of Nature" is made nearly unbearable by the unfortunate fact that Noel also sings lead vox. The intensity is there, the ego is there, but the finishing touch would have been the swagger that only Liam could provide.
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It is in fact Liam that takes a dominant role, penning two of the standout tracks and giving his most inspired performance in years. "Songbird" is unlike anything that Oasis has done in the past, a genuinely elegant track confined to a succinct and sublime two minutes; the snarl that so definitively marked Liam's vocals in past work is markedly absent, and such is borne the first truly uplifting Oasis song completely void of irony. The absence of Noel's brooding proves to be both refreshing and astonishingly good.
Even more refreshing is the fact that, unlike the past two albums, no aspect of "Chemistry" is consistently bad. Although some of his tracks combine to make up the album's nadir, Noel's "Little by Little" and "The Hindu Times" are certainly as good as some "Definitely Maybe" tracks. "Little" is the requisite solid power ballad, while the energy of "Hindu" unabashedly opens the album with remarkable intensity and charisma, both of which have been MIA since 1995.
No one will ever call Oasis original; to say that the Beatles have inspired their work would be a laughable understatement. More specifically, echoes of John Lennon's work float throughout lyrics, guitar lines, chords, etc., etc., etc. Nowhere in material will you find the innovation of Blur, the expansiveness of Radiohead or the lyricism of the Verve or Stereophonics. The comparative mediocrity of Oasis is overcome, however, by the pretension, the conceit and the simple fact that no one else is blasting pompous Brit rock quite like them.
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