Review: Oasis' Dig Out Your Soul

Oasis, meanwhile, have returned with their 7th studio album, entitled Dig Out Your Soul. Oasis have an unparalleled postmodern career: their entire output is a pastiche of Beatles-era rock, and every song and album of theirs has been weaker than the one before - as such, they enact, titanically, a myth of nostalgic regression - their final act will no doubt be to play, in utero, a McCartney-Lennon song. That being said, this myth of eternal failure (married to a myth of near-heroic invulnerability) renders Oasis criticism-proof. Like the flip side of an Oxbridge toff like London mayor Boris Johnson, whose buffoon-status cannot be ruffled because it already is, Oasis employ their proud working-class work ethos to justify their stolid, journeyman approach to touring and record production. Sod's Law seems to be their invisible hand. Anyway, this new album is not as "bad" as many critics claim. It is certainly a crowd-pleaser (and how else does one measure popular music than by its popularity?). There is not a shred of new thinking here. Thinking doesn't even enter in. But the Oasis swagger, that ineffable ability to be cool, is present. And, there are few outright clunkers. Yes, there are more sitars than any man or woman needs, and more Revolver-era stuff than - well, ditto. It's an Oasis album, dude. Get over it. Three and half specs.