Cutting to the thick of it, Dig Out Your Soul is good. Really good. If you happen to have followed Oasis long enough to get sick of their mid-career wank-fest, or if you just happen to be into Beatles / psychedelic influenced brit-pop, then go for this one.
Initially, it’s hard to believe Dig Out would manage to move beyond the mire of Oasis’ shoddily-produced and mediocre offerings of the late ’90s and early 2000s. At first, listeners might expect something similar to the band’s earlier release, Be Here Now, where signature moments full of hooks and early brit-rock inspired brilliance rarely come out, too buried under production bloat, sheer egos and bad songwriting to matter. This is definitely not the case.
Dig Out Your Soul is as much density and bark as Oasis has ever done. The album comes in with the slightly blues-tinged “Bag It Up” and rides that momentum through the album. The album is solid enough to let itself be banged up at the start and pacified in the middle with “I’m Outta Time” which sounds oddly like the Gallaghers doing a Pink Floyd solo in a Beatles song. Finally, Dig Out Your Soul swaggers back into the quietly self-assured grit for its close. In fact, sparing the song “High Horse Lady,” there’s scarcely a crappy track on the album.
Dig Out Your Soul has minimal wank, mediocre album art, a single bad song, two Gallaghers, some early rock and early verve influence, and manages to be the best Oasis album in 10 years.