Oasis doesn’t release bad albums. Their work spans a range from good to great, and the band’s immense talent is almost always obvious in their tightly woven, upbeat pop-rock records. Dig Out Your Soul is no Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0
fferent. Though it’s not Oasis’s best effort to date, the album certainly pleases.
Some of the songs, such as opening track “Bag It Up,” are wonderful. This track opens with a fantastic melody featuring powerful, pleasantly distorted guitar and a heavy drum line that is reminiscent of southern-style rock. The Gallaghers' unique vocals are still hard to confuse with those of any other rockers.
Unfortunately, many of the other songs are less impressive. Much of the album is filled with slower, rolling melodies that (despite how adeptly they are put together) are not as enjoyable to listen to.
Overall, the album is a bit uneven. Without a distinct theme or flavor, Dig Out Your Soul seems most comparable to The Masterplan, their 1998 release consisting of a smattering of previously unreleased B-sides. What does work for Dig Out is Oasis’s clear desire to redevelop their style in a fresh direction. The heavier sound they present on this album (with many tracks referencing The Black Keys or North Mississippi Allstars) is coupled with a more highly-refined level of production that gives the band’s sound an interesting new dynamic.
