Oasis: Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer, Andy Bell.

Additional personnel: Johnny Marr (guitar, slide guitar, background vocals); Paul Stacey (piano, Hammond organ, Mellotron); Mike Rowe (piano, pump organ, Hammond organ); London Session Orchestra.

Oasis has always been a band that favored the "big" gestures of rock stardom. Their fifth studio album, HEATHEN CHEMISTRY, doesn't change this stance, but what it does do is hone the band's best qualities to an impossible-to-resist machine-like precision, all gleaming chrome and super-high gloss finish. The basics are all here: the snarling, swaggering vocals; the massive, all-encompassing hooks, the bright melodies; and, perhaps most importantly, the overwhelming sense that they just might be the most unstoppable force known to rock.

Most of the songs fall into one of two modes, either rather sweet, sensitive (though never cloying) ballads or monumental stadium rockers that bow before no man. Standouts of the first are the torch (or perhaps cigarette lighter) song grandeur of "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" and the structurally bizarre "Little by Little," a track which demonstrates an unnerving but wholly effective synthesis of mid-period Pink Floyd. Standouts of the second kind include all of the album's first three tracks but especially the steamroller that is "Hung in a Bad Place," a monstrous, spitting squall of true rock majesty.

Rolling Stone (7/11/02, p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...For all of the variety [Noel Gallagher] is capable of, he's still not above using the old tried-and-true devices...to get his point across....Liam's torn-apart vocals...provide the blood and guts necessary to make the songs [heartfelt]."

Entertainment Weekly (7/12/02, p.84) - "...A step up from their last 2 albums...suggesting they can crib from U2 and T.Rex while maintaining what's theirs..." Rating: B-

CMJ (8/12/02, p.6) - "...The sound of the new Oasis..."

Vibe (8/02, p.156) - 3 out of 5 - "...The new CD crackles with anger, energy, and defiance....They can still bring it on..."

Mojo (Publisher) (7/02, p.94) - "...'Crying Your Heart Out' and 'She Is Love' are probably the most efficient, infectious pop Noel's ever written..."

NME (Magazine) (6/29/02, p.36) - 8 out of 10 - "...Play it loud and you can still believe this is the band who hosted the biggest rock'n'roll block party since punk..."