It's all conjecture at this point really. But to say that Noel could have done whatever he wanted with Oasis is a bit of a falsehood. I think he DID care what the others thought more in the end than he did in the beginning. And I think that in the end LAG opinions did matter more than we give them credit for. Noel for the first 3-5 years was a bulldozer. I don't think that was necessarily the case @ the end. With the inclusion of Gem and Andy I get the impression he kind of backed off a bit.

DGSS kind of says to me that LAG had been happiest creating retro-style guitar pop. We talk all we want about the possibility that BDI will grow but @ this point they haven't actually done anything that interesting. What they have done they have done well though.

And for all the criticisms of DOYS it seemed to me to be the first time Oasis weren't frantically running scared since BHN. SOTSOG was a deliberate reaction to the crazy OTT drama of BHN. HC was the desperate snap back the old sound after a failed experiment. DBTT was playing it supremely safe. Mostly inoffensive pop songs, even the inclusion of Lyla when the band didn't like it but they knew it would play well on radio. But after the success of DBTT, you would have expected them them to do more light retro pop, like DGSS. They would have had more success with that. But instead they did a 180 and released a heavy dark album.

That decision seemed like a step in the right direction for me. Of Noel, in particular, doing what he wanted instead of trying to recapture something he lost, or pander to his audience, or to make amends for previous albums..

It's a pity that because of Noel and Liam's behavior that album includes tracks that never should have been included. I hope that that is one of their biggest regrets. That Oasis last album wasn't the best one that they could have put out.