Oasis (and solo) album-by-album thread

If we account only for recordings during the Oasis era (therefore wxcluding whatever Noel and Liam recorded after the split), these are my favourite that didn't make it into albums:

1. Solve My Mystery (98/99 demo)
2. Idler's Dream
3. Listen Up
4. Fade Away (Help! version)
5. One Way Road
6. (It's Good) To Be Free
7. Let's All Make Believe (98 demo with Noel on vocals)
8. D' Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman
9. Acquiesce
10. Whatever

 

SotSoG could have been Noel's third masterpiece, if Noel hadn't try to Oasisify the album with pointless tracks as "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is". He actually should have stuck with most of his Wheeller End demos. I'd go even as far as to say it should have been a Noel solo album. We'll never know how would it have turned out if Liam hadn't stormed the studio when he found out Noel was recording. I actully made a fantasy Noel 1st solo album called "The World That Waits Outisde", which I listen to very frequently:


Noel Gallagher
"The World That Waits Outside"
(1999)

Side A
1. "****in' In The Bushes" (3:19)
2. "Go Let It Out" (5:32)
3. "Full On" (4:18)
4. "Gas Panic!" (6:41)
5. "Where Did It All Go Wrong?"(4:33)
Side B
6. "One Way Road" (4:05)
7. "Idler's Dream" (3:00)
8. "Let's All Make Believe" (3:30)
9. "Just Getting Older" (3:21)
10. "Roll It Over" (6:32)
11. "Solve My Mystery" (3:49)


Bonus Track (CD only)
11. "Teotihuacan" (7:05)
______________________________________

1st single: "Solve My Mystery"
7''
1. "Solve My Mystery" (3:49)
2. "Sunday Morning Call" (5:16)
12''
1. "Solve My Mystery" (3:49)
2. "Sunday Morning Call" (5:16)
3. "Teotihuacan" (7:05)


2nd single: "Go Let It Out"
7''
1. "Go Let It Out" (Radio Edit) (4:30)
2. "Who Feels Love?" (5:56)
12''
1. "Go Let It Out" (5:32)
2. "Who Feels Love?" (5:56)
3. "(As Long As They've Got) Cigarettes In Hell" (4:18)


3rd single: "Gas Panic!"
7''
1. "Gas Panic!" (Radio Edit) (4:35)
2. "Carry Us All" (4:06)
12''
1. "Gas Panic!" (6:41)
2. "Carry Us All" (4:06)
3. "Where Did It All Go Wrong?" (Version #1) (4:18)

Noel Gallagher - "The World That Waits Outside" - YouTube

Details here.

Enjoy.

 

Well I am glad he did not go solo, otherwise we may not have had a better Oasis. Andy and Gem made that band much better to me. Plus I got 2 Beady Eye albums out of it, both of which I totally dig.

 

The Next Masterplan?

D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman? 2:43 1994

Whatever 6:21 1994

Round Are Way 5:42 1995

Step Out 3:41 1995

My Sister Lover 5:58 1997

The Fever 5:14 1997

The Fame 4:35 1998

Cigarettes In Hell 4:21 2000

Idler’s Dream 2:55 2002

Shout It Out Loud 4:20 2002

Thank You For The Good Times 4:32 2002

Won’t Let You Down 2:45 2005

Pass Me Down The Wine 3:50 2005

Who Put The Weight Of The World On My Shoulders 4:10 2006

Lord Don't Slow Me Down 4:24 2007





Total playing time: 60 min 45 sec

 

I was in the audience for this. Thrilling.

 

Part of me wishes Noel had pushed on with "SOTSOG" as his first solo album, but it's clear he was yet to fully regain confidence as someone who had just recently given up a serious cocaine addiction that left him with major anxiety problems. While his younger brother's vocals were of a generally incredible form around this period, Liam had no place singing tracks as personal as Gas Panic! or Roll It Over, though I'll give him Let's All Make Believe, which is one the greatest b-sides I've ever heard. I'm hoping we'll eventually get all of those 1998-9 recordings from Supernova Heights and Wheeler End compiled into an official release, including those yet to have leaked, as the Mustique tapes proved just how solid the Be Here Now material was under the excess of its final studio production. By contrast, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants was built around Noel's original versions, though I'd love to see these expanded with the early band take of Little By Little that was supposedly also captured at Château de La Colle Noire around the same time frame. Also, don't forget that Noel's Force Of Nature dates back to this era as well, having been quickly thrown together for the Love, Honour & Obey soundtrack. For someone who'd supposedly run out of inspiration, I find a lot to admire about SOTSOG - even its name is pure Noel, as he claimed to have written this potential title down after noticing it on the side of a recently issued £2 coin in a pub, only to notice the following morning that he'd actually missed a letter out!

P.S. For a project that's very much the musical document of Noel's hangover from much of the 1990s, that alternate cover (which I recognise as the Sunday Morning Call single artwork with a few modifications) is absolutely perfect...

 

Having had Noel's demos and the actual SOTSOG album for 18 years (?!?!?) at this point, I think Liam bettered Noel's vocals on pretty much everything he sang. The album definitely has the vibe of a Noel solo album (before we knew what that would sound like), but having Liam sing "Gas Panic" and "Roll It Over" was 100% the right call, IMO.

 

Liam might be the better singer overall, but I've always felt that one of Noel's all-time greatest vocal performances can be found buried within those "SOTSOG" demos - he managed to hold the last note of Roll It Over for 20+ seconds, which is something his brother could only hope to match even on top form!

 

I think the original is one of the great album covers of all time.

I even like the way the band is playing football on the roof.

 

Ace post.
"The World That Waits Outside" is a project that I envisioned after a few years of listening to Noel's demos and it actually plays as a concept album:

The 1st half of Side A is the Full On Section ("****in' In The Bushes" / "Go Let It Out" / "Full On") represents the excess of the BHN era. I remember Noel's story that he woke up in a house and didn't know where he was, then found a guy who he didn't know, just to find out it was the owner of the house. "It's gonna be full on" and indeed it was.
"****in' In The Bushes" is the fascinanting Demo #2, which is very dry (reverb hadn't been added yet) and also lacking live drums (almost a Drum n' Bass version).
"Go Let it Out" is Noel's original demo with the Elizabeth Hurley / Mike Myers sample from Austin Powers at the beginning (not the one on the Virgin CD). The bit about promiscuous sex and reckless drug taking really anchors on the BHN era).
"Full On" is the "Sunday Morning Call" B-Side.

"Full On" ends with an effect that resembles going down a drain, which is the perfect cue to the Hangover Section - the 2nd half of Side A ("Gas Panic!" / "Where Did It All Go Wrong?"). Here is where Noel deals with anxiety ("panic is on the way") and all his "friends" who really weren't his friends ("Do you keep the receipts for the friends that you buy?").
"Gas Panic!" is the demo released on the 2000 Japanese ‘Who Feels Love?’ single.
"Where Did It All Go Wrong?" is the superior semi-acoustic version from the US promo, much more appropriate to the mood of the song and its lyrical content.

Side B represents Noel's road to redemption in the closing of the decade. The Redemption Section sees Noel reflecting on his addiction ("I wanna get high but I never could take the pain"), love ("as soon as they came, feelings they go"), loneliness ("I don't wanna scream out loud and wake up on my own"), ageing ("am I cracking up or just getting older?") , friendship ("let's all make believe that we're still friends and we like each other") and depression ("I can give a hundred million reasons to build a barricade").
The lyrical content on this material is absolutely monumental. Noel at his very very best. I hold this period with so much regard, as high as his MG period.
"One Way Road" is the B-Side released on the ‘Who Feels Love?’ single.
"Idler's Dream" is taken from "The Hindu Times" single.
"Let's All Make Believe" is the superior Noel 1998 demo (sorry Liam, but Noel nailed this one).
"Just Getting Older" is the original demo, although the officialy released B-Side is very similar, with just a few added reverb.
"Roll It Over" is the much superior Noel demo (notice those insane notes that Noel is hitting there).

After the intospective recovering process, the album ends on a positive note with the legendary original demo of "Solve My Mystery" - "It won't be long until I solve my mystery". Note that this song was completely changed when rerecorded by the High Flying Birds, featuring a faster tempo and a key change in the lyrics ("until I solve that mystery") which makes it sound like Noel is covering himself. What a pity the fabulous original recording was never released.

I love the concept and play this self produced album to death. I even thought about having it cut on vinyl and giving it to Noel in one of his pre-show signing sections. Maybe it would give him some ideas.


Noel Gallagher
"The World That Waits Outside"
(1999)

Side A
1. "****in' In The Bushes" (3:19)
2. "Go Let It Out" (5:32)
3. "Full On" (4:18)
4. "Gas Panic!" (6:41)
5. "Where Did It All Go Wrong?"(4:33)
Side B
6. "One Way Road" (4:05)
7. "Idler's Dream" (3:00)
8. "Let's All Make Believe" (3:30)
9. "Just Getting Older" (3:21)
10. "Roll It Over" (6:32)
11. "Solve My Mystery" (3:49)

 

The skyline cover does indeed work great for the album in its final form, while I prefer the Sunday Morning Call single as something that could have worked if this remained a Noel solo project. For the longest time, I had an original pressing of "SOTSOG" proudly displayed along with some of my other favourite albums - in this larger format, you notice quite a few details, such as how the image is actually a composite of shots taken at different times of the day, plus the rooftop football game (which was also used for Go Let It Out). At the time, I never understood why a quintessentially British group decided to prominently feature as distinctive an American city as New York on its comeback release, but it quickly grew on me as a concept, along with the artwork of singles from this period. Noel in particular seems as if he was determined to finally break the US market, and I can imagine that it must have been heartbreaking for him to be undeservedly playing smaller venues because the band was more famous as a result of Liam's antics. He looked especially upset during those larger stadium shows just before the somewhat inevitable split, though I guess part of that was him quickly having to accept the vocal problems his brother was experiencing around this period. Although I'm naturally grateful as a fan that both sides have been able to find a degree of success in subsequent years, it's been nearly a decade now, and I'm hoping they'll leave any water under the proverbial bridge to reunite before it's too late. Few people hold Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants in high regard, but as I've said on the subject before, I feel it was one step from undeniable greatness, with many remembering its flaws as opposed to the highlights. Perhaps an expanded reissue containing the amazing b-sides and those aforementioned demos will remind the world of just how strong the material from these sessions really was, ignoring the line-up changes or near-impossible feat of being the follow-up to a bloated mess that was never going to live up to such hype?

 

Just a quick note: If you ever did press up a copy of that alternate running order for SOTSOG, make sure to give the closing track its actual title. Whoever leaked the main bulk of Noel's demos at the end of 1999 didn't know the correct names for quite a few songs, including Let There Be Love and Revolution Song, despite the latter first being mentioned in Paolo Hewitt's book, Forever The People: Six Months On The Road With Oasis. I will agree that the final studio version of this released years after was a huge disappointment...

 

I actually prefer the title "Solve My Mystery" to the beiged official "Revoltuion Song". One of the reasons I prefer the leaked name is the fact that it clearly states in the title "MY mystery", as opposed to "that" mystery, which makes Noel distancing himself from his own song and his own feelings. It's a pet peeve of mine

 

Yet another ace post. Here's hoping that someday we'll see the release of a well deserved expanded version of SotSoG.
I also agree with you that the cover for Sunday Morning Call would work better on a Noel solo record, while the broader NUY skyline cover is more suitable to Oasis.

 

Cool, I never noticed that!

 

It's the rasp, and the snarl. SOTSOG may be the last album with some truly great Liam vocals, before he smoked his way into mediocrity. I will say though, going solo has really upped Noel's vocal game, for sure.

 

I never noticed that. But I wish I could split the tempo difference...the demo is too slow, and Noel's solo version is just a tad too fast.

 

So, nicking their sound and look is ok, but actually naming a song after them is the bridge too far?

 

Are the b-sides (I didn't even know this concept still existed)/bonus tracks to the BE and High Flying albums collected on deluxe editions of the studio albums or elsewhere?

 

It's ironic because in my neck of the woods, one of the reasons for Oasis' stymied success was Noel's trash talking The Beatles. People just completely blew them off, warranted or not, after that. Then when ...Giants was released no-one warmed up to the band again.

Ah well.

 

The reunion will come eventually. Y'all know it. And as long as they bring a reunited Supergrass on board for the ride, I'm down.

 

For the most part, no. You need to hunt down the singles to get them officially.

 

I recently discovered I have a channel called "MTV Live". I happened to click on it last night and they were showing the Unplugged concert from 1996. I sort of recall seeing it back then. I had forgotten that Liam was not singing at the show. I still find it amusing they cut to him hanging out every so often.

 

That the show where he was brooding in the control room, watching Noel sing and opening the Pandora's Box to him not singing some Oasis tracks in which he should be?

 

I wish the rehearsal recording of Unplugged with Liam singing would leak one day, just to hear what it might've sounded like. I love that instead of just playing their regular set with acoustic instruments like a lot of 90's bands did on the show (Pearl Jam, Live, Alice In Chains), they completely rearranged the sound, throwing most of the heavy work over to really unique string and horn arrangements. For a band that so notoriously exerted a "zero f@%ks given" attitude, Noel really spent some thought and time into their Unplugged appearance, and despite the drama, I think the end result is one of Oasis' best moments.