Since
Oasis has an instantly identifiable, seemingly simple signature sound -- gigantic, lumbering, melodic, and inevitable, as if their songs have always existed and always will -- it can be hard to pinpoint what separates a great
Oasis song from a merely mediocre tune. It could be anything from overblown production to a diminished swagger, or it could be a self-satisfied laziness in the songwriting, or a panicky attempt to update their defiantly classicist pop with an electronic shine. All of these problems plagued the group's records since their blockbuster 1995 blockbuster second album,
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?, and while none of the three albums that followed were outright bad, by 2002's
Heathen Chemistry it seemed that even
Noel and
Liam Gallagher had lost sight of what made
Oasis great. While that record had its moments, it often seemed generic, suggesting that the group had painted itself into a corner, not knowing where to go next. Surely, all the reports from the recording of their long-gestating sixth album suggested a faint air of desperation. First, the electronica duo
Death in Vegas was brought in as producers, bringing to mind the band's awkward attempts at electronica fusion on
Be Here Now and
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but those recordings were scrapped, and then their second drummer,
Alan White, left only to be replaced by
Zak Starkey, the son of
Ringo Starr, suggesting that the Gallaghers were coming perilously close to being swallowed by their perennial
Beatles fixation.