I agree with you that Stay Young would have been a better choice of single. Don't Go Away not so much, as it wasn't a strong statement of intent as a first single for a new album. Second single maybe.

But back then under Creation, the marketing team really couldn't do much wrong. The hype built around BHN reached levels I have never witnessed before or since, making it become the fastest selling album of all time, so DYKWIM didn't exactly harm its release. It was also a statement of intent that Oasis could break into new territory with a slightly newer, cooler sound.

The Brian Cannon posters and covers were far more striking back then too. The logo definitely stood out. Brand Oasis during the first 3 albums was in full swing, with each single having 4 songs that would have been the greatest hit singles on many other bands records.

Yet having been badly burnt by the fallout of BHN (or Britpop, more accurately) Noel withdrew into his shell and has become almost frightened of hyping and promoting his records too much. SOTSOG release was a non-event, as was all the albums that followed. The album and single covers were pretty much appalling for most part. The only thing Noel is not shy in doing is going on chat shows and magazines to talk about his new material. But the marketing team seem to have been put under a tight restraint ever since 2000.

I have been more impressed this time round with the re-release of BHN, with the newer DYKWIM single, the upgraded HD video, never heard before material from Mustique, and now having seen the Supersonic trailer, the film is looking pretty good.

I didn't bother buying into the remastered versions of DM and WTS, but with BHN I've made the exception and plunged for the £100 box set, because the material included this time round has improved dramatically.

I agree 100%  

SY definitely is a better song than DYKWIM in my eyes, and yes its more radio friendly. But the release of DYKWIM didn't do any harm to the release of BHN.

The real damage to BHN has been said a countless times on here - Princess Di, the public no longer having the appetite for the optimism around Britpop, tastes changing to wanting darker, more soul searching Verve/Radiohead type stuff, the loud mix of BHN not being radio friendly enough....etc. etc.

As much as Noel bigs up his first 2 albums with having his greatest songs, the third album, with all its B sides was pretty much up there too in terms of strong tunes. Going Nowhere is as good as anything from the first 2 albums, as is Stay Young, Don't Go Away and Stand By Me.

Unfortunately the songs became much weaker from 2000 onwards, where any decent tracks were purposely resided to B sides, to keep that Oasis trend going, but the songs left for the albums themselves were not that great in general. You can't really blame bad management for that, although as I said earlier, having the backbone team of Owen Morris - to give a more confident Oasis sound (SOTSOG and in particular HC were both crying out for this), and Brian Cannon - to still churn out iconic posters/covers, and not ditch the established Oasis brand identity, would have helped immensely in keeping the Oasis bandwagon rolling.  

It's telling that the best single cover released since 2000 is the recent DYKWIM 2016 Cannon cover, with its familiar Oasis logo firmly back in place up on the right hand corner. Just goes to show how much Noel fucked up with that silly Oasis Mk2 logo on SOTSOG, and then the bastardised logo for HC, and the crude, messy attempt to get back to the old logo with DBTT and DOYS, with horrendous cover artwork.

He may have said that to the cameras, magazines, microphones, etc......but the shoddy, timid, shy marketing campaigns themselves around each release says otherwise.

Noel got so badly burned by the fallout from the OTT BHN release, I doubt he'll trust marketing people ever again.

Noel was not dry for SOTSOG. He had plenty of songs. Probably not too many for Liam but there are still a lot of songs in the vaults that we don't know.
It was the perfect time for a change. He should have made a solo record and then get back to work for Liam's voice.
I listened to Little James and Roll It Over this weekend. Ain't that bad. I wouldn't change anything on LJ. RIO misses something. It's like he tries to go through the bridge and then walks back. Emptiness, lack of emotions ryhmes with RIO.

it was the perfect time for a change in the timeline of things after 3 albums of the same style but it wasnt the right time from a creative standpoint when Noel clearly wasnt all that inspired to write music and 2 band members left leaving only Liam, Noel and Alan to create an entire record, they couldve at least waited until Gem and Andy were brought it properly.

SOTSOG isnt a bad record but even so its not as good as BHN and that itself was considered a step down from DM and WTSMG, theres a nice selection of songs on there but its probably their weakest going from only the singles, theres simply not enough big oasis anthems to draw peoples attention.

I just feel after the madness of the BHN tour and the breakdown of the band it probably wouldve been best to either walk away from oasis and allow Liam and Noel to venture into other projects for a while or simply go and have a break for a few years before creating a 4th record.

as Ive said before, you combine HC and SOTSOG and youve got a great record, SOTSOG has the substance but HC has the singles but on their own they both are abit meh compared to everything else.

I think he forget that song until they found it when they selected songs for the DM reissue.

In my opinion they should have released a record in 1999 after Be Here Now, or 1998 after Morning Glory, they had the momentum to wait a few years in 1996 but not by 98. I think they probably wanted to have a record out in 99 but were foiled by the changes going on in the band. The situation was basically impossible in 98/99 and the worst management mistakes were really made in late 96, you can't really blame them though because the band's rise was so fast and emphatic!

DYKWIM release over Christmas 1997 followed by a 1st quarter 98 release for BHN and an outdoors summer tour would have been amazing though!

Only in your opinion mate. There wasn't that many decent tracks to choose from (a problem throughout all the last 4 albums).

And which is the last truly great Noel song?

Well if they're the ones who makes insanely blind and stupid decisions like releasing Alone On The Rope by itself ONLY in Germany or if you buy the whole record on Amazon thinking, like idiots, that people who already had the record would just buy it again for one track and not download it somewhere for free as they don't have any other option... then for that kind of shit.

It was mainly bootlegs and some unreleased rarities that you couldn't buy. Sometimes there would be things you could buy if you were in another country (like the aforementioned Alone On The Rope), demos and instrumental versions. It got shut down several times for copyright infringement until the owner, Jim, just threw the towel.