Send "Oasis " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 "I need to be myself/ I can't be no one else," sneers Liam Gallagher to start this 2xCD singles anthology. As a one-line encapsulation of Oasis, it still can't beat the refrain from the first song on the band's first album: "Tonight I'm a rock'n'roll star." And yes, there was a time when many indie-minded listeners' first reaction would've been to point out everyone else Liam and brother Noel apparently wanted to be, from the Beatles on down through glam and the Creation back catalog.In the aftermath of Oasis' 2009 breakup, however, the sentiment (such as it is) behind 1994 debut single "Supersonic" rings startlingly true. The men from Manchester lived out a certain simple, populist idea of rock'n'roll stardom: They drank to excess, did lots of drugs, brawled, waged sibling warfare like the brothers Reid and Davies before them, sold millions of records, and made arrogant statements against anyone who saw the role of a popular musician as anything different. At the same time, as their all-too-human 2000s output proved, they could never be more or less than themselves-- simultaneously swaggering and down-to-earth, and, at their best, indelibly melodic. This combination of characteristics helped spark an unprecedented 2.6 million applications for tickets to the 1996 English gig that gives Oasis' latest compilation its otherwise anonymous-looking cover image. Where 2006 2xCD best-of Stop the Clocks delved into album cuts as well as some of the band's once-sterling B-sides, Time Flies compiles only the 27 UK A-sides, plus, for the U.S. edition, the full album version of stateside smash "Champagne Supernova". As a product, then, it's equal parts redundant and incomplete, lacking album cuts like "Rock'N'Roll Star" as well as B-sides like "Talk Tonight" while adding three mostly unspectacular singles from 2008's Dig Out Your Soul. As strictly a listening experience, though, it's a decent document of a bunch of relatively unexceptional guys who willed themselves to greatness for a couple of years there but couldn't stop being relatively unexceptional....full text |
| Bbc |
| One has to feel sorry for a band that pushes itself to its artistic, physical and psychological limits and still only ends up being as good as Shed Seven or Razorlight. But at least they tried, right? On the other hand, one can and must reserve special criticism for the truly talented who choose commercial gain over artistic endeavour, when everyone from Prince to Johnny Cash and (yes, indeed) The Beatles realised that it was possible to combine both ventures. When Noel Gallagher went to see his kid brother Liam’s band Oasis, their name recently changed from The Rain, play in 1991, legend is that he told them that he would make them famous if they did exactly what he said. And while they stuck firmly to the terms of this uneasy pact they had the sublime experience of both cake ownership and degustation that lasted for several memorable years and two excellent albums. This utterly unnecessary but partially satisfying “complete” (says the sticker on the sleeve) singles collection manages to fall at the first hurdle by not including their first (and best) 12” from debut album Definitely Maybe, the shameless cocaine elegy Columbia. But it does include the fizzing glam rock twitch of Cigarettes & Alcohol, the impassioned platonic love song to youth that is Live Forever, and the neo Sex Pistols/Beatles bombast of Supersonic. Listening to these two discs makes it easy to pinpoint the exact moment it all went wrong, though. The eldest Gallagher talked a good game between second LP (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and third, Be Here Now. He told of how his band were jamming over NWA loops and how, fresh from hanging out with The Chemical Brothers, he was ready to push the group out of their pop origins and into their imperial psychedelic phase, just as his heroes The Fab Four had done. But when Be Here Now’s lead single D’You Know What I Mean? finally lurched into view, Manchester’s finest had obviously changed from being a benign and delightful retro dictatorship to a lowest-common-denominator pub rock democracy. And from this moment on it was sheer torture....full text |
| Blogspot |
| There was once a time when Oasis would put out a single every 3 months, a classic track backed with great B-sides, sometimes even better than its A-side. Who can forget the track listing of Cigarettes And Alcohol? Listen up, Fade Away and I Am The Walrus, you just wouldn’t dream of that happening today, not least with Oasis. 1994-1997 was a period when Noel Gallagher had the world in his hands. Anthem after anthem, there seemed to be no stopping him. You couldn’t avoid Oasis even if you tried, “What’s a Wonderwall anyway?” Fran Healy sang on Travis’ single ‘Writing To Reach You‘. Their songs had become part of the fabric in our society. As the title of their new single’s compilation rightfully suggests, Time Flies, and here we are celebrating their singles catalogue with a compilation that feels like the true marking of the end for Oasis. Nearly a year on since their messy demise, and a reconciliation seems as far off as ever. Liam continues to push on with the rest of the remaining band members under new name ‘Beady Eye’ (at time of press it was still unconfirmed whether this was a wind up), and Noel’s slipped very comfortably back into ‘normal’ life, or whatever normal is for a multi-millionaire rock star. We’ve already had the ‘best of’ compilation back in 2006, ‘Stop The Clocks’, a collection of tracks handpicked by Noel which served its purpose as a glimpse into what Oasis were about for the untrained ear but did little to satisfy the long term followers due to the omission of certain tracks (Half The World Away over Rockin’ Chair? you’ve got to be joking). Now we’ve been served up a singles collection, ‘Time Flies 1994-2009‘, slightly cheesy title aside, this is an impressive body of work that reminds us what an unstoppable force Oasis once were. One immediate observation you’ll probably make of this compilation is the order of the track listing, which is not chronological. The danger of doing it this way may have been opening the doors to critics who would say the album documents a decline in quality over the years. Noel said he wanted to put it together like a gig, but did also note that all the “iconic” songs would have been at the front had it been done by release date. I’d personally not have a problem with the album being chronological, as it would have been more of a journey for the listener, particularly for those who have followed the band since the beginning. So what if the second disc would be weaker than the first? it would be a much more organised and honest reflection of the bands career. This release will do well to shine a spotlight on brilliant tracks that slipped under the radar and are overshadowed by earlier material that still dominates the radio airwaves today. The anthemic Hindu Times, the psychedelic trip of Go Let It Out, the stomping live favourite, Lyla, and one of the finest pop songs of recent years, The Importance Of Being Idle - many bands today would kill to write songs half as good as these. It would be fair to say that in recent years Oasis became more of a singles band, but a bloody good one at that....full text |
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