Tyler: Peter, we’re both avowed Oasis fans.  Here we are tonight to discuss what’s generally considered the band’s nadir: 2000’s Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants.  At the time, the rumblings had been about a move towards electronic sounds, beats, loops, all manner of techno-style techniques we’d heard from Gallagher collaborators The Chemical Brothers.  Be Here Now, the LP preceding Standing On…, was already fading in critical favor. What on Earth would Noel and Liam conjure up as an encore?  The result was not favored.

I personally have not recalled this album with any fondness apart from a track or two.

Peter: I really liked this album when it came out.

Tyler: Oh yeah?

Peter: I didn’t like Be Here Now. I know we have differing views on that one. But this one I liked. I thought it was more focused. It sounded like they were trying. No nine-minute songs. The sort of pomposity that bloated Be Here Now. That was gone.

Tyler: I think I was biased because Bonehead and Guigsy left.

If memory serves, Noel went back and re-recorded their parts, leaving Whitey on drums as the only non-Gallagher performer.

Peter: That’s right! He can play drums, too. I think it would be dope if he recorded an album where he played all the instruments.

His Sign O’ The Times.

This is probably as close as we’ll come.

Tyler: And it starts with an instrumental, of all things.  Shall we get after it?

Peter: Yes, we kick things off with “Fuckin’ In the Bushes.” This song was shocking at the time. It was a real departure from their signature sound. They had ditched Owen Morris and had a new producer in Mark “Spike” Stent. He took them in a new direction.

Tyler: He sure did.  This one snarls.

Peter: Yeah, there are four or five on here that you’d save from the burning building and this is one of them. Noel is proud of it. Rightly so.

Tyler: Do we need the sound bites?  I’m not sold.  Other than that, yeah, it’s a top track.

Peter: Hmm… I’ve never thought about that. I can’t really imagine it without them? It’d be interesting to hear it without.

Tyler: Fair.  I’ve just never enjoyed the image of, indeed, kids running around naked, fuckin’ in the bushes.

The dude at the start is fired up, too!  Goodness.

I’m being a prude.

Peter: We should explain. There’s a sample of the MC of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, Rikki Farr, scolding the crowd after gate-crashers tore down the walls around the site.

Tyler: The clips, especially that first one, lend the tune a ferocious energy.  Well, the old lady at the end is light-hearted.

Peter: And two other snippets? From the same documentary, I believe. Yeah, she’s all for it!

Anyway, top track. Real good one.

Tyler: This one was also used at the beginning of Snatch, Guy Ritchie’s second flick.

Peter: I did not know that.

Tyler: You weren’t alone in digging it from the jump!

Next up is the original lead single: “Go Let It Out.”

Peter: Noel rates this as one of his best. Lots of people do. I never really saw its appeal. It’s fine. I don’t hate it or anything. I like the “Is it any wonder” bit.

Tyler: I like it a lot.  More now than at first listen.  The bass is spectacular.

Peter: The bass is fun. Noel’s playing guitar, bass, and mellotron on this.

Tyler: Man, I wonder what these tracks sounded like before Noel took over all the instruments.

Peter: That’s an interesting question!

Tyler: I’d wager that it’s real unlikely we’ll hear those recordings.  Unless they surprise us with a 25th-anniversary edition in 2025.

Peter: We can dream.

I didn’t know this, but Wikipedia told me, “The song samples the drums from Johnny Jenkins’ version of Dr. John’s ‘I Walk on Guilded Splinters.’”

Tyler: I’ll be damned.  Dr. John’s “Guilded Splinters” is a hell of a song.

Peter: I don’t know it!

I’ll have to check it out.

Tyler: Mac Rebennack was a bad motherfucker.

Peter: What about the whistle, Tyler? I hate the whistle! What is this “Hangin’ Tough?”

Tyler: No doubt Noel would love being compared to New Kids.

Peter: It went to number 1 in the UK, so they were still big over there.

Tyler: Now, our revisitation completely turned me around on some of these tunes.  Our next one, “Who Feels Love?” is one of those.  I’ve never been a fan until now.  It’s like you noted earlier—things are tighter on this album.  Cleared away is the coked-up cloud surrounding Be Here Now.

Peter: I’ve always liked this one. Psychedelia became a bigger part of their sound as the band matured. Here they embrace trippy, drone-style, Raga rock. I think it’s great.

Tyler: It is great!

Weren’t they in France recording this, keeping Liam sober?  He sounds terrific throughout.

Peter: He really does.

Tyler: Good thing, that, because the lyrics of the following song aren’t too…thorough.  “Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is.”

I scoffed remembering this.  Now I dig the hell out of it.  It needs more words, or maybe it doesn’t.

Frankly, I should concede that I love the b-side “Going Nowhere,” which only has one verse repeated.

Peter: Yeah, this track is 90% production/10% song. This album and Heathen Chemistry both suffer from this sort of shiny filler. It sounds good, but there isn’t much there there.

Tyler: The instrumentation continues to lift things up.  Noel is kicking ass all over the place.

I’m a sucker for his woven-in “Hey”s and shit.  “Something something the bass” at the beginning of “Go Let It Out” is another little nugget that pleases me.

Peter: I also enjoy that.

Okay, we have to talk about “Little James.”

Tyler: Yeah…yeah.

Not as bad as I recalled.  Noel and Stent produce the hell out of it.

Peter: They really do!

Tyler: Liam caught hell for the simplicity of the lyrics, but I think it’s a pretty sweet sentiment coming from a brawler, or a dude who wants to be known as a brawler.

Peter: It’s a bit sappy, but then he drops bombs like, “It won’t be long/before everyone is gone.” Bit heavy for a lullaby.

Tyler: Oof, good point.  Easy, Liam!

Peter: I can say this about it, I expected it to be way worse.

I remember not skipping it.

It’s another example of a track on here that’s 90% production/10% song. This one could be over at the 3:30 mark but it gets a big “Na-na-na” closing bit which it totally does not earn or deserve.

Tyler: Tell you what, we pivot hard from “Little James,” minor song, to “Gas Panic!”, which I love, a lot.  To paraphrase Noel, I’m having it all day.

Peter: Yeah, this is another one that’s pretty essential.

Noel is proud of this one. He disowned a lot of these songs. But he likes this one.

Tyler: Good.  It’s my favorite on the album.

Peter: Again, the production is fun. There’s a flute tootin’ away at the end there. Love me some rock flute.

Noel’s not playing the flute. To be clear.

Tyler: That bastard!  He cheated!

Peter: The chorus is pretty epic.

Tyler: This one, we should note, is ostensibly about coming off of hard drugs and booze.  That clammy desperation is at its heart.

Peter: Right. He’s talked about that.

Tyler: I remember an interview wherein he described the day he decided to clear out his system.  Woke up in a hungover stupor, surrounded by God-knows-who-or-what, cracked open a beer and looked in the mirror.

Peter: It’s that scene in the movie.

Tyler: Our next scene, then, is the most traditionally “Oasis”-sounding work on the album, “Where Did It All Go Wrong?”.  This was my standout back in the day, because I wasn’t old enough to appreciate the change in overall sound.

Peter: I love this song. I thought this was going to be a huge hit at the time.

Tyler: I watched helplessly as Noel’s voice cracked on the damn opening line while performing this one on an American late-night show.

Peter: Ouch! I did not see that.

Tyler: It was rough, man.  I was rooting for them and his throat just went.

One way or another, it’s a good song.  Downbeat, but it’s not alone on the album in that regard.

Peter: That’s true.

The next one is not one of Noel’s favorites. ”Sunday Morning Call.”

Tyler: I vividly can hear him on the commentary track of their music video collection.  “I haaaaaate this song.”

Peter: It was a single, but he made it a hidden track on their greatest hits collection.

Tyler: Time Flies or Stop The Clocks?

Peter: Time Flies, I think?

Tyler: I was just looking for that on Spotify!

It’s not there.

Peter: It feels like it was written by an AI writing Oasis songs.

“You need more time,” is a weak lyric. I liked it the first time I heard it, way back on “She’s Electric.” I looked the other way when he recycled it on “Don’t Go Away,” but this is just too much. I can’t. I won’t!

Tyler: Another young-Noel go-to: “Lost and lonely.”

Peter: Right.

Tyler: I find it unusual that the two songs Noel fronts here are back-to-back.

Peter: It’s true. That is weird.

The next track is “I Can See A Liar.”

Tyler: Hoo boy.

Peter: This might be the worst song Oasis ever recorded.

Tyler: It’s so sludgy!

Peter: Noel is rightly embarrassed by this song.

Tyler: I always lump this one and “Put Yer Money” together in my head.  But “Put Yer Money” is clearly better.

Peter: I came to the same realization!

“I can see a liar/sitting by the fire.” Again, I just can’t with this.

Tyler: The chorus rhyme is real bad.  “I can see a liar/Sitting by the fire.”

Jinx!  Mutual disgust!

Peter: Alright, the closer! “Roll It Over.”

I love this one.

Tyler: Liam busted this one out live in the last year or so.

Peter: Yes! He did it at Knebworth in 2022.

Tyler: It’s another kinda classic-Oasis-sounding record.

Peter: The verse has this dreamy, languid pace that builds to an absolutely massive chorus.

Tyler: There’s a hypnotic quality here.

Peter: For sure.

This is another I’m saving from the burning building.

Tyler: Correctly so.

Peter: Revisiting this album was interesting. I hadn’t heard some of these songs in a very long time, and, if not for this project, might have gone to the grave without ever hearing them again.

Tyler: Yeah, I was rather stunned by how much affection I developed for the album as a whole.  You’re right, they really were trying.

Peter: It certainly has its moments!

Tyler: Before we go, I think we should explain why “Shoulder” in the album title is singular.  Noel read a coin and accidentally dropped the pluralizing “s.”  I guess he liked it that way, because here we are.

Peter: He likes that sort of thing. It works fine.