Best tunes of 2002: #9 Oasis “Stop crying your heart out”

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Oasis. Yeah, I loved them. But there was also a period where we grew apart, me and Oasis.

As I wrote in my post detailing their appearance on my Best tunes of 2000 list with “Go let it out”, I found their third record, 1997’s “Be here now”, just a tad over the top, even for them. I didn’t even bother with the next one, “Standing on the shoulders of giants”, at the time, and took me many years before I gave that full album a chance.

My return to the Oasis fold started with their 2002 album, “Heathen chemistry”, their first album with new band members Gem Archer and Andy Bell (of Ride) and their last with longtime drummer, Alan White. It was marked attempt by Noel Gallagher to rein things back in a bit, and to try to recapture some of that magic that made the Manchester, England rock band so big in the first place. I’m talking here of the magnificence and exuberance that was their first two records. And I swore I heard a bit of that the first time I heard the lead off single from “Heathen chemistry”. I remember that I was back in Toronto for the weekend and driving around with my brother-in-law Nick and “The Hindu times” came on the radio. I also remember exclaiming aloud that it sounded like Oasis. To which Nick, thinking I was just stating the obvious, replied, “That’s because it is”.

As piqued as my curiousity was with this first single, it wasn’t until a few months later that I was really pushed to give Oasis another chance. My younger brother, Mike, came up to Ottawa to visit that summer and with him brought a bunch of CDs to keep him company on the long Greyhound trip from Bowmanville. One of the evenings that weekend was spent spinning CDs and sharing tunes and the two new ones that really stuck out for me was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s self-titled debut and the CD single of “Stop crying your heart out” by the Gallagher brothers and their friends.

“We’re all of us stars
We’re fading away
Just try not to worry
You’ll see us some day“

Noel’s lyrics aren’t always clear and aren’t always deep but they’re well put together for the melody and still manage to evoke moods and feelings. “Stop crying” is a motivating and uplifting number. Yeah, it’s a piano ballad with Gem Archer earning his keep. But it soon gets anthemic because… of course, it does. Big guitars, shimmering and crashing cymbals, towering strings, and over top it all, it’s Liam, sneering and crooning and jerking our tears and pulling our heartstrings.

Sing it with me: “Hold onnnnnn!”

Man, that Noel knows how to conjure rock and roll, doesn’t he?

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2002 list, click here.