STANDING ON THE SHOULDER OF GIANTS (Big Brother)

In a nutshell: With their Alma Mater Creation defunct and the memory of heir useless third album still fresh in most sane folks minds, this is a make or break release for the Mancunians. They may still bestride the pop world like colossi but they look decidedly less colossal than of yore. The title is a misquotation from Sir Isaac Newton and acknowledges the band's, er, traditionalist approach to songwriting

What's it like?: Hugely better than the ghastly 'Be Here Now', happily. Liam Gallagher has described this as the band's 'Dark Side Of The Moon', a comparison that makes no sense musically but a lot conceptually. Though some swagger remains in the introductory bluster of the instrumental "Fucking In The Bushes" and "I Can See A Liar", it is a more reflective and self doubting band than we've seen before. Indeed the working title was "Where Did ItAll Go Wrong?". Well it suits them. Gone is the Stars In Their Eyes plagiarism of the last set (though even here two tracks Iift the same section of Thunderclap Newman's 'Something In The Air') and the material is strong. That said, Liam's paean to his stepson is slighter than a nursery rhyme but undeniably sweet. What would have been Side Two in the days of vinyl is the album's musical essence: Noel Gallagher voicing and exorcising the demons that have dogged him in the last three years.

How many good tracks?: Eight, out of ten.

Best track: Gas Panic, a sour spectral piece of rock star paranoia.

Best line: "Now my family don't seem so familiar cos my enemies all know my name" from the above.

Verdict: Not the masterpiece some were claiming - people seem to lack any perspective around the Gallaghers - but a sterling work that trumps UK's moribund indie guitar sector right now. If the electrifying flair of the early albums is gone so has the bloated banality of 'Be Here Now'.

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c 2000 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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