Discounting, perhaps, a rather shambolic collection of songs that hit the streets last summer, the concept of an Oasis B-sides album is fundamentally redundant, since Oasis have never produced a true B-side in their creative life.
If anything, their efforts - potentially thwarted by recent changes in chart qualifications - have revived the fortunes of the EP, a fantastic concept (now lost forever) which my parents used to talk about before I had their mouths sewn up.
A valuable document that spans the inception, prime and messy demise of Britpop, "The Masterplan" also betrays the band's own ups and downs, or up and down.
The first three single releases are all ignored, as are the last two, while "Some Might Say" - which most would agree is peak Oasis - is represented in full: "Talk Tonight", "Acquiesce" and "Headshrinker". This kind of selective amnesia is a luxury that true singles albums are rarely granted, so it's hardly surprising that here we have an album with just one duff track - "I Am The Walrus". Which isn't really their fault. Hooray!
Another beneficial factor applied to "The Masterplan" when compared with a proper "Greatest Hits" compilation is that with singles' bonus tracks we can delude ourselves that they are hidden from the unpleasant attentions of The Mainstream and are thus "cool", where "Wonderwall" et al are all horrendous commercial abominations. This is semi-bollocks, of course, since Oasis sell bucketloads of singles and everyone knows the B-sides. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether throwing tracks like "Half The World Away" or the album's true corker, "Stay Young", to the mercy of an adult-orentated album-buying public, where once these songs were the domain of singles-buying teenagers, will lessen these songs' power.
It's unlikely. While "Be Here Now" had its head in the clouds and its feet on preposterously thin ice, tracks here - "Acquiesce", "Talk Tonight" and "Fade Away" celebrate the youthful, sometimes hopeless honesty that always made Oasis so special. This continues even when we get to "Stay Young", which originally appeared backing the monstrously overblown "D'You Know What I Mean?". You can't afford to show your real self on a B-side, and "Stay Young" is proof that, in spite of public alteration, Oasis haven't changed at all.
Noel, keep on chucking out those EPs. You won't qualify for the chart, but you don't need to; not with an album like this
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