i love noel's music as well. he's a brilliant songwriter, but if it's a shit record, he'll deserve every bit of criticism for it as much as he deserves praise if it's good.

to put it simply the man hasn't released a total shit album. HC was pretty bad but it did have some saving graces. With him hitting another creative stride 2005-to present I think this could be his best batch of songs since MG. I'm not trying to hype it up too much but really if DBTT and DOYS were combined with just Noel's tunes you'd have their third best album easily and it would hang nicely with the first two. Plus believe it or not I do think Noel feels the need to prove himself (to a much lesser degree than Liam because we all know Noel wrote the best songs) but I still think he won't be lazy with this album and will probably work and focus on it as hard as he did with SOTSOG and this album really could just make his legacy that much stronger.

Very true.

I can't listen to it. Because of the relentless pounding, It's one of the few Oasis songs that gives me a headache any time I listen to it.

That is quite a bold statement to make. I think quite a few people might disagree with this.

Well of course he was holding back a little bit. That shouldn't even be questioned. He said as far back as 2006 or so, that he had a few songs that "wouldn't work in Oasis" and was specifically saving for his solo effort.

Rounding out these songs he's supposedly had for years with new songs he's writing right now, I personally would be shocked if he couldn't come up with a dozen songs that are of excellent quality.

Just out of interest at the time were you happy that Noel was releasing sub standard songs under Oasis and keeping the best ones for himself or is that a view formed now that he has his own solo project??

Any Oasis song without Liam on it was basically a Noel solo song with a backing band so this quote that he had written songs that didn't fit/wouldn't work for Oasis is rubbish from Noel.

The main complaint about Oasis after the boom years was that it was the same old same old, same style, same influences, the live show didn't evolve it just became a greatest hits tour with 3 new songs from the last record added to the setlist.

Noel was in the position to alter people's perception on Oasis, keep the band evolving, reinventing itself and pick up more new fans along the way by being more diverse. He just chose not to because he couldn't be arsed basically.

good post, k+

Those Noel sound check songs would not fit on an 'Oasis' album also they are a little too complicated for Liam to sing. I think Noel felt creatively trapped by the Oasis 'sound' and wanted out when the opportunity arrived. On top of that you have 3 other band members writing half an album - i bet Noel felt distanced from it. Noel started to write allot of songs in a slight falsetto voice. The last 2 Oasis albums Noel pretty much stopped writing b-sides...only 2 Noel written tracks which are hardly classics (Sitting In Silence & Those Swollen Hand Blues). I rather Noel write songs that have special meaning for him than Oasis by number songs like Shock of The Lightning or trying to recapture Definetley Maybe.

Whatever direction he's going, there will always be somebody deeply unsatisfied - That's "realistic". I even doubt he gives a shit.

Totally agree with the above post.

Oasis didn't evolve at all musically. Noel spent 15 years trying to recreate his youth, with snippets of originality spread over 4 albums and 8 years. I think they became caricatures of themselves towards the end.

The inevitable response will be "Falling Down / Waiting for the Rapture / Importance of Being Idle were original", but they weren't exactly worlds apart from the classic Oasis sound, were they? It was hardly The Jam to the Style Council or Blur to the Gorrillaz. Even those bands on their own adapted and showed more creativity than Oasis.

I love Oasis and I'm not criticising Noel here, but his legacy will be Definitely Maybe, Morning Glory and very little after that. They became very stale after Be Here Now and seemed to plod on for the next 10 years after that, despite a brief revival in DBTT.

I think it was probably a lack of confidence from Noel in fairness. I got the impression he didn't want to face another backlash like Be Here Now so just stuck to what he knew rather than take the risk. Thats fair enough, but I also think he's played the victim for 10 years and acted as if Liam and the rest have held him back - somewhat understandably. Beady Eye have put themselves out to be judged, over to you now Noel.

If he has held songs back then I think you have to question his commitment towards Oasis in the final few years. Again, that is understandable, but again he has always implied that Liam held the band back when they were perhaps equally to blame.

As for expectations, I hope he does experiment. If we get more songs in the vein of Stop the Clocks or the soundcheck songs then I think that says more about himself than Liam.

I don't think Noel wanted out per sey. He wanted a 5 year break in order to focus on his solo album. The rest of the band, however, wanted Oasis straight back in the studio. Therein lies the conflict. Noel wasn't finished with Oasis, he just wanted to take time off to work on a separate project. That being said, he did use the fight as a way out once he realized the rest of the band wasn't going to acquiesce to his 5 year break idea.