Standing on the Shoulder of Giants attempts to reclaim ground lost on Be Here Now . It drops ponderously long songs and simply replaces them with ponderously ponderous songs. It adds a sample here and a scratch there, but falls miles short of the dance inflected album that Noel Gallagher has been promising for years. Standing attempts to apply a Zepplinesque overlay to Abbey Road , resulting in the band s sounding here and there like an altogether soulless version of The Verve. All in all, it is the single most uncompelling album Oasis could have made.
Standing succeeds mostly as an exercise in sharp relief.
As ordinary a songwriter as Noel has become, his ordinariness is given full floor when compared to Liam s sole songwriting contribution, Little James. Basically, It is a rewrite of Hey Jude minus the sweetness, and it is an absolute horror. Lest this become an outright Liam bashing, it must be said that the junior Gallagher does have one of the most expressive voices in rock today. His bratty nasalness is a road accident of a voice. You d like to not be fascinated by it, but you can t help it.