Dig Out Your Soul
Artist: Oasis
Label Reprise

Oasis have never cut it with me. They have always been Beatles rip off merchants who have plodded out average rock that we have all heard before and in the meantime been great icons for lads yobbery. How their seventh album, fifteen years after the first, goes straight to number 1 is one of life's great mysteries. Let me be honest; I bought it because it was cheap in Tescos. When the girl noticed the price I did say. "Yeh, that's why I'm buying it." She went on, "Please tell me you're a fan though." "No," I replied with a shrug, "I'm just buying it so I can be in on the conversation."

So let us converse. The great Beatles theft continues. A lot of riffs, sitar sounds, little phrases like "magical mystery", the studio used, a sample of John Lennon's voice and even the drummer's son for goodness sake!

You certainly don't get what it suggests on the cover. A fascinating collage of political and religious imagery clutter the cover with intrigue that we would be foolish to imagine the Gallagher boys could wrestle with in their songs. Other than a couple of God references mainly suggesting he doesn't answer when you call there ain't much spirituality. Bono might have been sending Noel Philip Yancey books but not much has come of it so far. And on politics Noel recently said the only chance he has of changing politics is if he votes every four years so there is not much belief in music as transformation there.

All that said, Dig Out Your Soul is a pretty good rock record; the best that Oasis have released in an awful long time. The riffs are robust and the playing is sharp, the melodies are immediate and the choruses well crafted. It will sound good on radio and there will be few hit singles to keep it in the commercial sphere for a lengthy time. There are actually some tasty little musical interludes usually on an intro or an outro. The boys have worked hard. Fair play. Nice record!

But I was always told that nice was a bad word and nice was never enough. In the diet of sounds that the modern human consumes this album is not one of the five fruit of the day. It will not bring any healthy aspect to your life or world. It is ear candy floss and little else. There will be no harm done to give it a listen but make sure it is part of a healthy balanced listening diet. When it comes to British rock this should not be our most influential export. Even from Manchester let us think Elbow not Oasis when we talk influential rock music.

Steve Stockman

Steve Stockman is the Presbyterian Chaplain at Queens University, Belfast, Ireland, where he lives in community with 88 students. He has written two books Walk On; The Spiritual Journey of U2 which he is currently updating and The Rock Cries Out; Discovering Eternal Truth in Unlikely Music. He dabbles in poetry and songwriting and he has a weekly radio show on BBC Radio Ulster (listen anytime of day or night @ www.bbc.co.uk/ni/religion/rhythmandsoul). He has his own web page--Rhythms of Redemption at http://stocki.ni.org. He also tries to spend some time with his wife Janice and daughters Caitlin and Jasmine.