Pitchfork 's Oasis Heathen Chemistry review

I'm far from being anti-Oasis, but this new one is BAD. 1.2 is generous. They're settling into the Rolling Stones thing of being a massive live band who release an irrelevant album every couple of years so that they can delude themselves that they're still creative. Oasis are a predictable target, though, so I'm not gonna wallow.

Im not that keen on the album, I'll give it five.

The pitchfork 'review' gets a big fat zero from me, but Im not in the jaded-seen-it-all-before-so-hip-it-hurts target audience who are probably more impressed with a review that is all concept and no content.

Still, I'm sure the pitchfork folks wont be too upset by my comments, I don't even know what pitchfork is *for* - it makes no sense to me to have a website that immitates vacuous lifestyle accessory print media.

Pitchfork reviews a lot of albums the vacuous lifestyle-accessory press won't touch, to be fair, and the daily format seems a much more sensible way to present reviews than a big monthly wodge.

As I bitched about in the nylpm comments section, the Village Voice review was worse. It was just very amateur-ish, and not even in an entertaining way.

on the oasis threads i think we need oasis defenders, because ilx (and, in fact, the world outside the oasis core fanbase) don't really like oasis (myself included). people to tell me why i should like it (may be a hard task as i don't like any oasis i've heard previously)

Im not in the jaded-seen-it-all-before-so-hip-it-hurts target audience who are probably more impressed with a review that is all concept and no content.

yes, alexander we get that. i'm probably in the camp you describe here, but i've never had it sufficiently explained why there is an assumption of jadedness to this.

me: "have you heard this dj assualt its great, do you remember adorable, they were fantastic, i'm just discovering all this brasilian stuff its great, i'd love to hear some more east european pop its sounds fantastic, when is beanie sigel going to do another album, the last one was brilliant"

other person: "have you heard the yeah yeah yeahs?"

me: "yes, they're really played and dull"

other person: "oh, you're just jaded, man, its rock and rolll, just drop your pretense" etc etc

Taking sides: being jaded vs being Jade!

or, to clarify, alexander, i don't understand why you keep going on about 'jaded hipsters' etc etc, but in response to people going on about all the fantastic music thats about at the moment. like, loads of enthusiasm=jadedness. eh? but i rarely see any enthusiasm from yourself, unless its in jumping on someone because they don't like some old rock band or whatever

I would like to be Jade! I admire her tictacs.

But as far as Oasis reviews go...I can honestly say I don't care for Oasis at all, but most reviews of them are so lazy and poorly written that they're even worse than the band.

I don't even like Oasis' good songs + I write for Pitchfork = unfortunate hipster violence at music critic parties.

Oasis are crap now because they don't write good breast-beating anthems anymore, they write less tuneful, more plodding breast- beating anthems. There, I said it. Can we just re-write this sentence whenever an Oasis review has to be written from now on? Saves time and energy!

GarethAreYouSayingImMinging?

ImNotMingingYouSaidIOnlysayBadThingsAboutOldRockBandsAndISaidYouSai dThatISaidToOtherPeopleThatIAmMingingButINeverEverEverSayToPeopleToOnl yLikeOldRockBandsISayToPeopleToLikeEveryThingButYouveBeenGoingAroundSa yingToPeopleThatButIwasThereInMuichIn1968ToSeeCanItsAlwaysTheSameThatP eoplesayTheyCanTalkAndJadedIsWhatIsInThatReviewAndItNotSayingThisIsMin gingCosOtherPeopleAreBetterItsSayigITheReviewerAmBetterAndThatsWhatIMe anANdYouAreSayingIAmSayingOtherPeopleLikeAndTheTextIsAnElementOfStyleM agsAndTheDoCoverThisStuffIREADTHEMALLINBORDERSIKNOWWHATIAMTSAYINGANDWH ATIMEANTTOSAYANYWAYWHICHISMYOUDIFFERENTMINIGINGOTHER.

Does my arse look big in this?

well, it's difficult to say interesting things abt the dead (that's Oasis, not the grateful dead).

"Were you even at the same gig??!!"

Kilian, listen to "Born on a Different Cloud" from the new album and tell me which of Oasis's "breast beating anthems" is better than it - I think it's the best song they've ever done.

Gareth, you are right about the YYYs, they are shocking.

I like the yeah yeah yeahs

what is "minging"?

yeah, waht's this "minging"?

on the oasis threads i think we need oasis defenders

Hullo. But that said, I've actually been holding off listening to the new album -- I bought it, mind you! The list itself has been wondering why I've not said anything yet, and I think it's because I'm fearing disappointment. Now I know there are a lot of people who are going to say 'what did you expect,' but please, good folks, hear me out: I didn't like them much at the start back in 1994, just thought Definitely Maybe was all right. But then something, somehow, clicked and from there it's been a constant appreciation and sometimes obsession, and there even a couple of songs on SOTSOG I really enjoy ("Gas Panic!" live in particular was wonderful).

By virtue of their attitudes, by the style of mainstream rock they ushered in that currently sets on the UK scene's head like a huge dead weight, by many other things it stands to reason why they're hated, and I don't doubt anyone's antipathy for them, whether always disliked or now turned against. Yet all I have to think about is how monstrously great a song like "Columbia" is and frankly, I know what my heart and head thinks and will always think.

Haven't read this review, though.

ned- I know exactly what you're saying. My first alb was definetely maybe. Everything clicked immediately. But after the second alb plus some b-sides in 1995 it's been very depressing knowing that they will never write something as good as 'Slide away'.

sandy == jade : gareth == tim.

yeah, thats about right.

Is there a Yeah Yeah Yeahs thread? I've got something to say.

"Kilian, listen to "Born on a Different Cloud" from the new album and tell me which of Oasis's "breast beating anthems" is better than it"

Unfortunately, I have heard it. I'll tell you what's better than it: basically all of Definitely Maybe, Morning Glory and the Masterplan. I like Oasis. I love the earlier stuff. I'd love it if they were still great. But they aint.

"sandy == jade : gareth == tim"

jade I know of (by reputation on here at least) but who are sandy and tim?

Sandy - Sandy Blair I suppose rather than Sandy the grumpy personal shopper on Big Brother. (Though have they ever been seen together?)

Tim - posh bloke on Big Brother.

Gareth's point is good - do people get called jaded for not liking rock more often than for not liking other music? New thread I think.

its not often I get called posh!!!

i think people do get called jaded for not liking rock/indie music, yes. the underlying assumption/implication being that anyone who doesn't like indie/rock must have liked it 'at some point' and then got jaded - whereas someone who doens't like dance/hip hop/jungle/salsa/bugalu/disco/salsoul/techno/garage/bounce/miami bass/go-go/jazz/folk/country/ never liked that=not jaded

ie - people only like other music because they are 'tired of rock', no thought given to the fact that people may actually have liked this music first, that not everyone has a rock/indie background. but then, thats the primacy of rock/indie in discourse for you