I had the good fortune to be a high school student during Britpop's formative years (1993-1997). This gave me the perfect opportunity to listen to all sorts of wonderful music that, as an American teenager, I found quirky, melodic, and compelling. Of course, I only listened to Blur; Oasis was strictly off limits, due to the Brothers' Gallagher and their perceived snottiness. Yes, “Wonderwall” was a great song. But wasn't “Country House” better?
This review isn't meant to open old wounds, although it's pretty obvious that “Country House” wins hands down. My distaste for Oasis lessened after I graduated from college, and now I consider them to be a fine band indeed. “Stop the Clocks,” Columbia Records' last-ditch effort to capitalize on this notable band, is a fairly decent collection of Oasis's best songs. There's “Slide Away” and “Supersonic” (though, weirdly enough, the only song I ever thought really beat the pants off Blur -- “Shakermaker” -- is nowhere to be found). The remastered sound is markedly improved, Peter Blake's cover collage is fantastic, and there's an essay by Andrew Smith that pulls everything together. So that's the good news.
The bad news is that the set leaves out more than “Shakermaker,” deciding instead to throw some B-sides on in place of more well-deserved songs. This is a bad, bad, bad decision. We don't listen to Oasis for their B-sides. Morrissey, maybe, but not Oasis. By contrast, Blur's “Greatest Hits” contained just that – the hits. Nothing more, and nothing less. Christ, even Tom Petty's “Greatest Hits” sticks to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
“But Ben,” you may be saying. “This isn't called Stop the Clocks: Oasis's Greatest Hits.” I know. But such albums in which hits and B-sides are collected together (Morrissey's bummer “My Early Burglary Years” comes immediately to mind) always fail in my book. If you're a crazy enough collector, then you already have all the CD singles (or CaSSingles). If you're a newbie, then you don't want crappy B-sides. You want the VERSE-CHORUS-VERSE pub anthems that made them famous (and up to which they haven't been able to live since then). So save your money on this one and go out and buy “Definitely Maybe” and “What's the Story...” instead. You'll be glad you did. |