EpicAfter the group's disappointing foray into electronica, Oasis decided, possibly because they were tired of getting raked over the coals by fans and critics alike, to make a swift 180 back into the familiar sounds of rock and Britpop. Unfortunately, they couldn't let go of the more psychedelic stylings that bogged down much of the previous album, and so the tight, crisp (and pleasantly acerbic) Oasis was replaced with a messy, bland (and uncharacteristically swagger-less) Oasis. They're somehow trying way too hard to sound like their younger selves, while the muddy instrumentation makes it sound like they're also not trying at all. It's weird. But as we've learned, Oasis isn't really a band that can pull off being weird. Or rather, they don't know how to make weird work for them. Now, to be fair, there is a handful of great Oasis tracks hiding amongst all the muck. "Hung In A Bad Place" and "She Is Love" deserve their place in a Best Of compilation (even though "She Is Love" sounds eerily similar to a Counting Crows song). But even when they make the psychedelic sound compelling, as they do in "The Hindu Times," it's not enough to justify it drenching the whole album.
