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Dig Out Your Soul

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 158 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Warner Bros/Elektra/Atlantic
Release Date: 07 October 2008
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative
Summary
The British rock band releases its seventh album, produced by Dave Sardy.
Also By This Artist: Don't Believe The Truth Familiar To Millions Heathen Chemistry
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
All Music Guide
What's striking about Dig Out Your Soul is how its relentless onslaught of sound proves as enduring as the tunes.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
With this balanced collection of solid rockers, more airy, toned-down tracks and far less self-indulgent noodling, Oasis prove they can learn from their mistakes.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
More than anything else, there’s a feeling that Dig Out Your Soul might actually be their best album in over a decade. In other words, not quite the fabled, oft-promised “Best one since fookin’ "Definitely Maybe!"" but certainly the best one since fookin’ "...Morning Glory."
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
Those follow-up albums were disappointments because, aside from a catchy song or two, they were tedious. Dig Out Your Soul defies this trend and is their most compelling offering in years.
Read Full Review >Observer Music Monthly
It won't win them any new fans, but those that believed the truth last time will dig this.
Read Full Review >Hartford Courant
Noel Gallagher comes up with a half-dozen tracks as good as the classic-rock epic 'The Turning,' or 'The Shock of the Lightning,' which swaggers as confidently as Oasis did a dozen years ago.
Read Full Review >Trouser Press
Noel provides the best songs on Dig Out Your Soul, although his bandmates certainly can’t be accused of slacking in their efforts. The problem with this one is that it’s front-loaded with Noel’s songs, which makes the proceedings start to drag a bit.
Read Full Review >Spin
Noel Gallagher wrote two more tunes here, both excellent. Unfortunately, age has softened his heart, and he cedes the album's other half to his bandmates (including lead-singing brother Liam), who offer subpar material.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Dig Out Your Soul, however, is the sound of a band rediscovering its snarl.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
To that end, and overabundant allusions to The Beatles aside, Dig Out Your Soul is a feat in its own right.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Qualitywise, most of the tracks here are more ''Bungalow Bill'' than ''Eleanor Rigby.''
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Dig Out Your Soul continues Oasis' relatively impressive late-period resurgence.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times
There's a forward motion to the backward glances, but the spiritual-philosophical bent of many of the songs suggests that brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher preferred the era when rock stars set out to explore the meaning of life rather than maximize the monetization of their brand.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
For those who have happily stuck around this long already Dig Out certainly won’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back--by all means, it lightens the load quite considerably. But it does so with the dawning realisation that, 17 years and seven albums in, this is a high point in a career deficient in high points.
Read Full Review >Blender
Overall, Dig Out Your Soul is a dark, heavy, chart-snubbing record that acts Oasis’s age (main songwriter Noel Gallagher is 42) and is their first in eons that doesn’t seem desperate to please. Oasis have their devil back.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Oasis can still occasionally produce songs suggestive of the breezy insouciance that marked their early years--the new single 'The Shock of the Lightning' among them--but more often on Dig Out Your Soul, they sound as though they're killing themselves trying to come up with something that'll do.
Read Full Review >Uncut
It's an uninspiring ending to a record that it's best faces up to some pretty downbeat truths and thus seems to fit right into the current national mood.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
If there are moments when the feted snap and snarl of yore amounts to little more than ramming generic blues licks down the audience's throat, they're tempered with moments of discovery like the lysergic 'To Be Where There's Life' and 'Falling Down' which displays an uncharacteristic lightness of touch.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
On a cursory listen to Dig Out Your Soul, it's hard not to think 'yeah, it's Oasis' and then unwittingly switch off - not through boredom or distraction, but because it's all so comfortable and, well, familiar.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Dig Out Your Soul might not be the sound of envelopes being pushed, but its mix of kitchen-sink production and too many vague songs mark a deviation from business as usual that ultimately fails to deliver. [Nov 2008, p.105]
Q Magazine
A second Oasis album to better "Standing On the Shoulders Of Giants" and "Heathen Chemistry," but one too, that promises so much only to fall so short. [Nov 208, p.104]
Rolling Stone
Dig Out Your Soul is an almost comically generic Oasis release, from its preponderance of plodding midtempo rockers ("Bag It Up," "Waiting for the Rapture") to the vaguely Indian raga-flavored psychedelic anthems ("To Be Where There's Life").
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
This album shows that they know what they're good at and that their latter-day acoustic balladry and epic wanking were getting tired. [Fall 2008, p.77]
Pitchfork
for now we're stuck with Dig Out Your Soul, which like every Oasis album from 1997's "Be Here Now" onward, makes cursory gestures toward making the band's mod-rock more modernist, before reverting back to the same ol', same ol'.
Read Full Review >Sputnikmusic
Dig Out Your Soul isn’t the worst record Oasis have produced, but even the heavily shat-upon (an unfairly so, in this writer’s opinion) Heathen Chemistry was comfortable within its own skin.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
An overall sound that’s been compressed and flatlined into one continuous buzz, this sounds like a tired band that had already gone through the motions before it even started.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 158 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Richard G gave it a2:
I'm a big Oasis fan and I have to say that this is the worst Oasis album I have ever heard and believe me I have given it a good listen. The one redeeming song in my view is I'm outta time which stacks up well with other great Oasis songs. The shock of the Lightening is also ok. But I guess I'm just into good songs. Most of the other tracks on the album seem like boring jams to me. None of the well worked out catchy tunes that make Oasis so good.
This album proves that oasis are still very much an important force in music today. all this songs deliver whilst it's no definitely maybe or Morning glory (but then again no album is) it stands up as a great record with great songs by a great band. a pleasure.
Chris K gave it an8:
When I first heard this album I thought Oasis were finished...but after hearing it again it gets a lot better, with some of their best work on here...of course it can't compare to Definitely Maybe or Morning Glory, but it's still a great album by a great band!
Chris C. gave it an8:
While this may come off as not as great of an album as Don't Believe The Truth, this is a simply great rock record that has swagger and heart unlike most of the bands out today.
Dave N gave it an8:
Great first half, first 5 tracks are amazing. High Horse Lady is good, though a bit to repititive in my opinion. Falling Down is perhaps the best song on the album. The latter songs are of lesser quality. To be Where There's Life is still quite good, but Ain't Got Notin' is awful, as is The Nature of Reality. Soldier On is a decent ending, but lacks the brilliance of a song like Champagne Supernova. Overall a pretty good album, but could have been better.
Sammy S. gave it a10:
Great album from a great band.
Mr Man gave it a10:
Love this album. Didn't like Oasis before but I heard Shock Of The Lightning on the radio and loved it so I bought the album and I love every song. I've got down to buying the rest of the Oasis back catalogue and I've so far got to Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants and I've gotta say I haven't found a song I dislike yet! Beginning to think this is the best band of all time.
Tyler R. gave it a10:
Can't find any critiscisms of this album - every song is a belter, as long as you don't listen to it with Definitely Maybe in mind. It's easily better than 90% of the rest of the rubbish being churned out these days by other artists.
