Oasis: 'Falling Down'

Released on Monday, Mar 9 2009

Published Friday, Mar 6 2009, 10:11 GMT | By Alex Fletcher | 8 comments

Dig Out Your Soul is by no means the worst Oasis album, but it's probably the most ordinary. The coke-fuelled Be Here Now was pretty barmy and the follow-up Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants was plain awful in parts, but on the whole they were enjoyable mistakes. We could forgive the errors and egos because Oasis were still striving to be the biggest band in the world. But 'Falling Down', actually one of the better tracks from Soul, is all too representative of their recent dip in ambition.

As is often the case with Oasis, it bears a striking resemblance to other works, most notably The Beatles' 'Tomorrow Never Knows' and Noel's 1997 Chemical Brothers collaboration 'Setting Sun'. It does feature some vaguely interesting lyrics about talking to God and the elder Gallagher offers a bit more subtlety behind the mike than his sibling, but other than that this tune passes by with barely a whimper. Even for a band who struck gold with retro guitar anthems and borderline plagiarism, the nagging feeling that you've heard this all before is hard to shake off.

> Click here to listen to 'Those Swollen Hand Blues', the 'Falling Down' B-side

More: Oasis, Music

Your Views

8 Comments

Your Responses

Taz, london, on March 18th, 2009
Pity they didn't call it 'shutting up' and then actually went away permanantly and did it!!!!

paul, on March 16th, 2009
Bad, Bad, Bad

Richard, West Midlands, on March 15th, 2009
This song is one of the best oasis tunes in years and I really like the B-side aswell. This chap really has no idea of good music. Fans of the new oasis album should look at the 12" "Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble" remix of Falling Down... it will blow your mind!

Ian, Kent, on March 11th, 2009
No doubt the above reviewer thinks that bands like Radiohead and other such pretentious purveyors of art school drivel are the best thing since sliced bread. He has churned out the same old boring quotes about "Be Here Now" and in all truth the whole review smacks of lazy journalism, for he knows little or nothing of the band he is writing about.

andrew. cardiff, on March 7th, 2009
yeah i thought exactly the opposite to the reviewer as i tought this was so much different to all their other stuff. this is noels best songwriting achievement in years and its a shame for the song that i'm outta time is a better slow song

James, Sevenoaks, on March 7th, 2009
This is the best track of Dig Out Your Soul without a doubt. However I do disagree with the review's closing sentence: 'Even for a band who struck gold with retro guitar anthems and borderline plagiarism, the nagging feeling that you've heard this all before is hard to shake off.' - Falling Down is one of the most original Oasis tracks in years.

Paul, London, on March 6th, 2009
I have to admit I rather like it too. It has a sort of 'groove' that in my view actually makes it rather different to their normal stuff, so I am a bit surprised by the reviewer's comments. Oh well, room for us all I suppose.

Johan, London, on March 6th, 2009
I really like this tune. One of the best off Dig Out Your Soul alongside Bag It Up. It sounds great live too. I hope they make another LP in 2010 as Liam said in a recent interview!