THE MASTERPLAN (Creation)

The Best Oasis B-Sides Album In The World...Ever! Sort of...

There are two schools of thought regarding the role of the B-side in popular music. The first contends that it is where the artist shows their true songwriting mettle, free from the commercial demands put upon the A-side. The second maintains that it is a willing home for the musical flotsam which can neither cut it as a single or an album track. In short, B-sides are shit.

However, there is no denying their in power in terms of showcasing brilliance. Anyone who bought [The Smiths'] "This Charming Man" first time out surely can't forget the pounding glory of its flipside "Jeanne". The advent of the CD single has given artists loads of space to deluge the record-buying public with an array of extended versions, remixes, demos, grim ballads, acoustic versions, French versions, not to mention the odd dodgy cover.

One band who has consistently taken it to the max with their B-side output is Oasis, and "The Masterplan" is a sort of Oasis B-side Greatest Hits. The 14 tracks have all previously appeared chaperoning the Gallaghers' UK singles (so, if you have them all, there's no need to buy this album.) The tracks included were picked out of 33 available tunes by the band and partly by fans using the internet.

Despite the overtones of egalitarianism and the comforting image of an army of Oasis fans pounding away at their Pentiums surrounding the project, "The Masterplan" is something of a curate's egg. Actually, that's not true, because the curate's egg was good in parts whereas "The Masterplan" is actually brilliant in parts.

It opens with "Acquiesce", your usual, driving Oasis-by-numbers stomper of the kind that is really easy to bounce along to at a gig. All the usual ingredients are there: a wall of guitars pierced by Liam's diffident snarl and Noel's belting choruses. It is a track that smacks you in the mouth, shouts "Oasis!" at you really loud, then f***s off. You've heard others like it and you will again, becuase it is what they are good at. Track two is "Underneath The Sky", currently my favourie Oasis song. A whimsical slice of skiffle-delia which, despite the occasional whiff of teen poetry, has a great tune and an achingly beautiful melodic sweep to its chorus. It's almost as if the first two tracks are setting out the stall - "Yes, yes, we do this, but look, monkey boy, we can do this as well!"

Noel's solo songs make me wonder whether, at some point, they were intended to be full-blown band numbers with all the trimmings, and, in truth, it's easy to imagine Liam swaggering his way through the touching "Talk Tonight". But, thankfully, at times Gallagher senior has the good sense to rein in his Spectoresque vision and see that less is more. "Going Nowhere" finds Noel in introspective mood, and the keyboards and French horns chunter along quite nicely but don't grab you in any way.

The opposite is true of "Fade Away", a dirty stab of punk which sounds akin to the best of mid-period Buzzcocks but deceives the listener with fancy chord progressions that nutmeg the ears. The end of the song has Noel doodling lazily on his guitar a la Keith Richards, alluding, albeit slightly, to the wealth of influences which have been brought to bear on Oasis' output.

Then we have the two definitive donkeys of the album nestling side by side. "Swamp Song" appears to be the fruit of a particularly lengthy soundcheck, a migraine-inducing pounder lanced through with a single note from a harmonica. Not since "Groovin' With Mr Blue" has the harp been so impressively under-utilised. Then, while the listener is still on a low, they make sure that they stay there with the awful live version of "I Am The Walrus" - which, in all fairness, was a dog of a tune when The Beatles did it, so The O's have got no f*****g chance. The end of this track is faded out, so I can only assume that when it was originally recorded, it was a great deal longer, God forbid. I assume that it was some massive computer hiccup that allowed these two tracks on to the collection over such gems as the acoustic version of "Up In The Sky", or the great missed single of 1995, "Round Are Way", or even bloody "Cum On Feel The Noize". But I suppose that's the nature of such a beast. You can't please everyone.

"Listen Up" is standard Oasis fare and doesbn't benefit from having to follow the gruesome preceding tracks. "Rockin' Chair" is one of the few cuts on the album that actually sounds like a B-side. From its R.E.M.-like arrangement to a particularly upfront vocal from Liam, it's pleasant enough but not up to the standard of the openers.

Thankfully, we are rescued from ssomething of a mid-album slump by the fabulous "Half The World Away", one of Noel's true moments of understated glory. Owing more than a passing nod to "This Guy's In Love With You" by Noel's idol, Burt Bacharach, the subtlety of the production adds to the finished song. "(It's Good) To Be Free" occupies a unique position in modern culture as the first post-modern urban sea shanty. As with much of the Gallagher canon, the lyrics have an anonymous outsider not understanding the singer of the song, and emerging as it did at the height of tabloid Gallaghermania, that's more than understandable.

In contrast, "Stay Young" is an optimistic and bouncy little sod which, behind "Round Are Way", is yet another great lost oasis single. "Headshrinker" finds the band drifting into a neo-heavy metal phase with the attendant axe solo and histrionic vocal, which sounds like it was delivered in a wheely-bin.

Finally, the title track sums up the whole endeavour. A lot of my mates cite "The Masterplan" as their favourite Oasis song and yet there it was, tucked away on a B-side. A lustrous, sweeping epic with Noel very much centre-stage, it makes as close to an Oasis philosophical statement as anyone's going to get.

As an album in its own right, "The Masterplan" is a bit ragged around the edges, with some glorious moments, as well as some howlers. There's a better album to be found among the B-sides, but surely that's why God gave us tape recorders. However, as a record of the work of one of the decade's most successful songwriters, it's amore than inviting prospect.

So, if you do still have your receipt for "Be Here Now"...I think you know what I mean...

3 out of 5

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c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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