From the beginning, Oasis' greatest strength and most glaring weakness has been shamelessness — the belief that no classic-rock riff is too timeworn, no Beatles allusion too banal to merit blasting out at top volume. At its best, this brutish approach has produced some transcendent music ("Live Forever," "Wonderwall"), but as years have passed and gray hair has sprouted in the Gallagher brothers' moptops, the self-parody has often seemed less charming than wearying. Oasis' latest is heavier on groove than normal, and there are a couple of gripping moments, especially Liam's stately, Lennonesque ballad "I'm Outta Time." But for the most part, Dig Out Your Soul is an almost comically generic Oasis release, from its preponderance of plodding midtempo rockers ("Bag It Up," "Waiting for the Rapture") to the vaguely Indian raga-flavored psychedelic anthems ("To Be Where There's Life"). Then there's the issue of Liam's "philosophizing" — he's entered the Maharishi phase of his Beatles worship, clogging songs with beatitudes like "Space and time and here and now/Are only in your mind." Got that?

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.