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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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Dig Out Your Soul
by Oasis
The British rock band releases its seventh album, produced by Dave Sardy.
| LABEL: |
Warner Bros/Elektra/Atlantic |
| RELEASE DATE: |
07 October 2008 |
| DISCS: |
1 disc |
| GENRE(S): |
Rock, Alternative |
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...
90
All Music Guide
What's striking about Dig Out Your Soul is how its relentless onslaught of sound proves as enduring as the tunes.
80
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.
80
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."
80
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.
80
Observer Music Monthly
It won't win them any new fans, but those that believed the truth last time will dig this.
80
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.
70
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.
70
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.
70
Billboard
Dig Out Your Soul, however, is the sound of a band rediscovering its snarl.
70
musicOMH.com
To that end, and overabundant allusions to The Beatles aside, Dig Out Your Soul is a feat in its own right.
67
Entertainment Weekly
Qualitywise, most of the tracks here are more ''Bungalow Bill'' than ''Eleanor Rigby.''
67
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Dig Out Your Soul continues Oasis' relatively impressive late-period resurgence.
63
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.
60
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.
60
The New York Times
It sounds so good; really, it sounds better than it is.
60
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.
60
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.
60
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.
60
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.
60
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.
60
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]
60
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]
50
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").
50
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]
49
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'.
40
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.
37
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.
The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 151 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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