The Hindu Times

Two years have passed, and maybe they have not changed.
Or maybe they did, instead...


oasis.gif

When you start to play the hindu times, the new single from Oasis you immediatly think two things "Oh, they´re back" and then, dependently on the fact you´re a fan or you´re not "and it looks always the same", where the difference stays in your way to pronounce that sentence, either with a pleased smile or a bad sign into your eyes.
Because hearing the sneering voice of Liam singin "and I get so high I just can´t feel it" or carrying on raucously his voice over that glorious "you´re my sunshiine, you´re my raaa-iiinn" it really seems like we´re all back to 95 or 96 Summer, with old friends of us we´ve missed for quite a long time.
The Hindu Times isn´t in fact anything new in the Oasis camp: a better production than the past two albums, probably, a good effort from always-wearing-the-flag -and-waving-it Liam taking care of making everything sounds equally menacing and infectious as long as arrogantely gracious, and the usual uplifting, upbeating choruses and  singalong lyrics to give you three minutes of joy.
THT indeed gives to you such a warm feeling of expectations about the incoming hours of your day you can´t regret to hear it .
Overhall, it´s a genius mixing among the omnipresent David Bowie´s Heroes, Footloose (!YES!) and Dandy Wharols-and a guitar riff slowed down from Abba and their Does Your Mother Know?-, all treated "Oasis-ish" with usually a massive amount of swallow attitude to brighten up your mood.
A really good song, a really good comeback.
What about the rest then?
 

there are two other songs there, just getting older and idler´s dream, and you know that your judgement about the whole single has to depend on them two more than on THT.
Well, just getting older is the usual ballad Noel Gallagher is pleased to  make sound as much as possible a thing Paul Weller would have put out a couple of years ago.
A bit long intro, but the verse which follows sees Noel givin out a fine performance and you start to hope, till he starts the chorus. Now Noel, you have not the rocker voice for mantaining a certain power (like your brother?...) when all instruments come and scream, and you have to make your voice sounding MORE than all of them put together. You simply don´t have that power, then why do you have to make those kind of choruses? Also when you after the second verse, hear this electric guitar riff breaking through for only a second or two, and you feel that with some more power in the song, it would have been something way better. Actually, the best part of the song is the again quiet and thoughtful second verse, where everything melts delicately together, givin a certain feeling to the listeners.
It´s too bad that these lyrics , which are really good and capable of making you live Noel´s life throught, have to be let down by a wrong approach to the style of the song. This song could have, or better this song should have been better...
 
And you´re already starting to fear that something is internally broken in Oasis music, when hope arises back, and fastly, as soon as you hear the wonderful piano making othervoice alongside Noel´s one on the closing track, the whispering and soulful to  pieces idler´s dream. This is an hell of song!
Noel here is utterly perfect: he sings so realistically the tender and romantic words, and he never tries to sound anything more than a sweet lover. And he does it majestically. When the last verse starts, and he carries on around his voice in the winding paths of the song,you can´t avoid to shake and melt.
This song carries you on and onwards so wonderfully, that you see Shangri-La (places of pre native Gods somewhere in Tibet and Capital of Inner perfection and Goodness, following the legends) while hearing the piano softly caressing your ears.
 
So these are the new Oasis, finally: a racous band which still to do its little mistakes but which can always give out a rabbit from their hats, and a very unexpected one as well.
Did you ever try to imagine that one day your favourite song out of one of their singles would have been a ballad without chorus played all by piano?
This are the new Oasis.. and maybe something new, now we can really expect it from them.

tracks:
the hindu times- 7,5
just getting older- 6,5
idler´s dream- 8