Exiled Records

Reviews:

The Gallagher brothers are back again, still retaining their title as the biggest band in Britain, as well as one that's completely lost their momentum here! And like their last outing, 2000's merely okay Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, they haven't regressed to the principal flaws that sunk 1997's major misstep Be Here Now. Instead, like their superb first two LPs, 1994's Definitely Maybe and 1995's (What's the Story) Morning Glory, Heathen Chemistry feels more natural, less forced, as if they've cooled out a little from being so damn massive (very few bands sell 18 million copies of an LP), and remembered to just put all that aside and get back to writing simple songs.

Oddly, they have to slog through some old bad habits to get there. Tracks two and three, "Force of Nature" and "Hung on a Bad Place" are indeed "hung on a bad place." With their belabored classic guitar rock riffs, these two tracks not only trash the nice start provided by the catchy opener, "The Hindu Times," but make the group sound like a boring bar-band doing tired, warmed-over Stones and Faces riffs-where once they made that old dog do new tricks.

It's not until the slower single "Stop Crying Your Heart Out," that they break free of this been-there-done-that-better mold. Heathen's attempt at a new "Wonderwall," the song sounds much like a McCartney "Let It Be" power-ballad gem from 1968/69. When nasally singer Liam Gallagher next offers the first of his three songs, the winsome, acoustic "Song Bird," it's clear things have changed for the better.

If you found Oasis abrasive and irritating before, this won't change that. Nope. It's not a departure. But even if you didn't know the band got along remarkably well making Heathen Chemistry, and have relaxed a lot after so many years of ego-blown-up fighting, bad drugs, and megalomania, you can hear a much more composed band making nice, melodic pop music, and there's always a place for that.