Oasis
Lyla

Liam: You've got to progress, but it doesn't mean to say you've got to go forward.
Noel: Eh?
Liam: You can progress sideways. Or backwards. I'm right. Tell me I'm not.
Noel: Progression is going forwards. Going backwards is regression. Going sideways is just gression.

So the brothers Gallagher wittily quipped in a 1994 press conference; but who knew they’d stick so rigidly to what they said. 10 years after the fantastic ‘...Morning Glory’ album, rather than sticking out a re-release, Oasis have decided to pull their socks up and release a new album. As the first single from forthcoming studio album No. 6 ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’, ’Lyla’ is also their first since the 90’s to have the old Oasis logo plastered on it’s cover, suggesting that it’s the band’s biggest return to the sound of their golden age. Gallagher the elder has talked it up as _“The Who...the poppiest thing we’ve done since 'Roll With It'...specifically designed for pogoing”_, but as with any N. Gallagher hyperbole (anyone remember Proud Mary?), it’s also a major, though not entirely unexpected, disappointment.

‘Lyla’ is no ‘Roll With It’ - hell, it’s no ‘Hindu Times’, but whereas that single had swagger and purpose, this one just plods; _“I’ve waited for a thousand years for you to come and blow me out my mind,”_ Liam sings in his trademark sneer, just before the predictably ‘anthemic’ chorus begins. With Noel cribbing chords from both his own ‘Hindu Times’ and his beloved Stone Roses’ ‘I Am The Resurrection’, as well as penning his usual cliché-laden lyrics (“The star’s about to fall...heaven help me, catch me if I fall,” indeed), ‘Lyla’ sounds like an Oasis parody, or worse, an Oasis tribute band trying to write their own song. It’s their least interesting single since ‘Who Feels Love’, and if this is the most immediate thing on the album, they may have been better off reissuing ‘...Morning Glory’ after all. Now what was it you were saying about progress, Liam?