ALBUM REVIEW: Oasis - Heathen Chemistry

    By the time Oasis released "The Hindu Times" as the lead single for their upcoming album on 15 April 2002, it was very apparent that the world-conquering force that had cemented their success across three studio albums in the 90s was far gone, left as a nostalgic reflection on the CD shelf at best. Oasis' time in the new millennium was off to a rocky start when their fourth album, the moody Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, was met with critical disinterest at its most positive - three Top 5 singles, including one chart-topper, wasn't enough to make the album seem like anything more than the definitive end of an era for the group. So, maybe they were scared off by the critical reaction to Standing on the Shoulder; maybe they wanted to get back to what they did best; maybe they wanted to bring Oasis into the 2000s good and proper, especially now that they had a proper band again with guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell added as members. Point is, with Heathen Chemistry, it seems like Oasis wanted to get back on track, and they were going all in on this album - you can find interviews where Noel Gallagher hypes up Heathen Chemistry as their best album since Definitely Maybe hit the world with the shock of lightning back in 1994. In hindsight, this statement is assuredly laughable, as Heathen Chemistry is not the force of nature that any of their 90s albums were, nor is it the more psychedelic and moody change in sound that Standing on the Shoulder of Giants was: Heathen Chemistry is the sound of course correction. Moreover, Heathen Chemistry is the sound of artistically moving backwards; a flat-sounding, often poorly written affair that stands as Oasis' worst studio endeavor of their entire catalog, to the point where even a few red hot singles aren't enough to save this album from being hung up in a bad place.

    Straight out the gate, I'm getting the absolute worst thing about this album out of the way first and foremost - it sounds bad. It just sounds bad, and in a completely unique way to how other people could say Oasis albums sound bad. While Be Here Now is an overproduced wall-of-sound fueled by coca extract, cresendoing egos, and certified excess, and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants was a turn towards a more refined, sometimes generic sound, Heathen Chemistry was a group production, and the result is Oasis' flattest-sounding disc. Say what you will about Standing on the Shoulder or the insane brickwalling on the group's 90s releases, but those albums certainly didn't lack power, something that is absolutely missing from Heathen Chemistry. You know it's a rough sign when a surefire bullseye like "Little By Little", one of the album's stronger moments, doesn't even hit the same large, climactic highs that "Gas Panic!" or "Roll It Over" was hitting just two years prior; when compared to tunes like "Be Here Now", "Cigarettes & Alcohol", or even something like "Roll With It", it doesn't even get started. The entire album is surprisingly empty sounding for a group that prided itself on its huge guitar wall and the thick, full production of previous albums, and it's more confusing than anything; even the acoustic tracks from their 90s era sounded more full than "She is Love" or "Songbird" do here, both of which ended up as singles and both of which come short, although I'll give more credit to "Songbird" for showing that Liam is capable of writing a decent song. Speaking of songwriting, I'm not one to typically harp on Oasis' lyrics, because it has never really been their strong suit - as far back as "Supersonic" Noel was writing nonsense lines about a doctor doing it on a helicopter with a girl called Elsa - but on this album, Noel really craps out some of his worst verses yet. "(Probably) All in the Mind" is what I imagine people who don't like Oasis hear when they hear Oasis - a flat rock number, loaded with blatant Beatle ripping (I can't be the only one who thought of "Taxman" or "Rain" with that bassline, right?) and some assuredly weak vocals from Liam. Speaking of Liam, he's really rough on this album - on Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, you could hear his voice changing, but he still had a real power, evident on moments like "Roll It Over" or "Go Let It Out" - here, his voice is clearly more degraded, probably most evident on his own "Born on a Different", a song that Noel praised as fantastic, to which I say that only Noel Gallagher would give such praise to a song where Liam essentially rips, by my count, at least three John Lennon songs. Granted, it's still one of the album's better moments.

    That leads into the main question left - what's actually good on this album? Is there any actual chemistry to be found? Yes. Spattered throughout this album are a few moments that help to remind the listener that Oasis is capable of making good moments. Perhaps the most enduring moment from the group since the 90s lies on this album after all, in the form of the single "Stop Crying Your Heart Out", a prototypical piano ballad from Noel that, while perhaps a bit cliché, is a sweet enough ballad, earnest in its performance and with the same human approach that much of the group's best work attained in the 90s. While the version of "Force of Nature" that we have on this album is ultimately a bit flaccid, at its core there's potential for a snarky rock number à la "My Big Mouth" if the song was better utilized - Noel gives a solid vocal performance, but what this song really needs is Liam's arrogant vocal style, because what we have without is an undercooked rocker with desperate need for a powerful singer. "Little By Little" suffers from the same lacking production as the rest of the action, but there's no denying that the chorus and hook that Noel devised is a winner, to the point where I'd wager it's one of the best albums on the album in spite of the weak production. While I don't love the song, it would be foolish of me to deny that "Songbird" is certainly Liam's best songwriting up to that point, and is certainly a lighthearted, sweet acoustic moment that shows Liam is very capable of writing a solid tune - this is before "Better Man" at the end of the album makes you do a double take on that, though. As insubstantial as Andy Bell's instrumental "A Quick Peep" is, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at least a little bit enjoyable - the song itself reminds me of a Traffic leftover from the Low Spark album, which is far from a bad thing. Then, of course, there's the opening track "The Hindu Times", the album's only chart-topping single (yeah, "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" only hit Number 2) which, while containing some assuredly rubbish lyrics, is the closest thing the album has to a proper, lively rocker - some of the album's problems remain here, but "The Hindu Times" at the very least gets the album off to a proper good start, shortly before the album falls down and can't get back up.

    In spite of the words Liam preaches on the first song, there is no soul in this rock and roll, babe. This is the part where I let you in on my little secret - a good chunk of this album's demos are up online in a handful of places, and what we hear in Noel's original demos shows an album with much more life to it. Everything, from the production to the early lyrics, are often a big improvement to what we got with the final product, including a drastically different "The Hindu Times" and a version of "Force of Nature" which warrants its name. Something was lost in translation with this album, and in the process of moving from the demos to the finished project, the life was lost. Heathen Chemistry is handily the nadir of Oasis' tenure, and one that shows a group that has somehow gotten completely thrown off their earlier momentum. The bar was thoroughly missed when it came to this album, and it's far from the Definitely Maybe of the 2000s that Noel wanted us to believe. Liam Gallagher himself called it his least favorite Oasis album, ultimately giving the album a 5 out of 10 in an interview with the NME: y'know what, Liam? I agree.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Heathen Chemistry.