| Standing on the Shoulder of Giants | ||||
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| Studio album by Oasis | ||||
| Released | 28 February 2000 | |||
| Recorded | April–August 1999 in France (Chateau De La Colle Noire) and London, England (Olympic Studios, Supernova Heights, and Wheeler End Studios) | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, neo-psychedelia | |||
| Length | 46:41 | |||
| Label | Big Brother, Epic | |||
| Producer | Mark Stent, Noel Gallagher | |||
| Oasis chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Standing on the Shoulder of Giants | ||||
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Standing on the Shoulder of Giants is the fourth studio album by English rock band Oasis, released on 28 February 2000. The album is the 16th fastest selling album in UK chart history, selling over 310,000 copies in its first week. Standing on the Shoulder of Giants has been certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry[1] and has sold around 208,000 copies in the U.S.[2][3] despite becoming their fourth number-one album in the UK. It is currently the band's lowest selling album to date.
In 1999, the year preceding the final release of this album, Oasis had lost two founding members (Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan) and hired a new producer (Mark "Spike" Stent) to replace Owen Morris.
The album is an effective modern psychedelic record complete with drum loops, samples, electric sitar, mellotron, synthesizers and backward guitars, resulting in an album more experimental with electronica and heavy psychedelic rock influences. Songs such as "Go Let It Out", the Indian-influenced "Who Feels Love?", and the progressive "Gas Panic!" were a departure from the band's earlier style, "Fuckin' in the Bushes" has been considered to be the closest Oasis have come to hard rock with Led Zeppelin style riffs.[4]
Contents |
The album's title was taken from the words made famous by Sir Isaac Newton: "If I can see further than anyone else, it is only because I am standing on the shoulders of giants". Noel Gallagher saw the quote on the side of a £2 coin while in a pub and liked it so much he thought it would be a suitable name for Oasis' new album. He then wrote the name on the side of a cigarette packet while drunk. When he awoke in the morning, he realised he had written "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants".[5]
Due to the departure of Bonehead and Guigsy from the band while the album was still in production, their parts had to be re-recorded for legal reasons.[6] Thus, the album only features the Gallagher brothers and Alan White, and the sleeve of the album also features them.
Noel decided to drop the equipment used in the three previous albums and instead buy "loads of really weird pedals, old guitars, and small amps", as the lack of deadline to deliver the album allowed Gallagher to "take quite a few days just messing around" and attempt new musical sonorities.[7]
The album's artwork features the photo of New York skyline taken from the rooftop of the Rockefeller Center. Some famous buildings can be seen here, for example the Empire State Building is seen in front and the WTC is seen in the back. This photo has a very special effect - it is impossible to say during what time of day it was shot. To achieve this effect, the photographer had to capture the same frame every half an hour in 18 hours during the whole day's course. Then the photos were digitally edited and united into the actual picture. All of the singles released from this album contained artwork that was based on the album artwork; the shot used for "Go Let It Out" can be seen above one of the buildings at the front, which depicts five men playing football. This shot was taken from the roof of a football stadium, and the footballers from the car park were edited onto the rooftop on the final cover.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | link |
| Entertainment Weekly | (B) link |
| NME | link |
| Q | October 2000 |
| Robert Christgau | link |
| Rolling Stone | link |
The album at first received generally mixed reviews from the media, with a metacritic score of 60 out of 100. It was a darker album possibly reflecting the times, or perhaps reflecting the loss of two original members. Noel has said, "Even though it wasn't our finest hour, it's a good album born through tough times. I worked harder on that album than anything before and anything since." Noel was forced to play nearly all the instruments on the album.
It was more warmly received when Q Magazine gave Standing on the Shoulder of Giants 4/5 stars and the B-side to "Go Let It Out", "Let's All Make Believe", was featured in Q's top 500 lost tracks and said that if "Let's All Make Believe" were on the album "it probably would have carried the album to another star".
Although it received lukewarm reviews from the music press, both Liam and Noel Gallagher have praised certain aspects of the record. During a Radio 1 interview with Gary Crowley in 2002 Liam said "Some people reckon the album is shit, but I think it's a great album...it's just a bit different", whilst Noel Gallagher has stated that he regards "Go Let It Out" as "up there with some of the best things that I've done". He also stated in a 2005 interview with Rock Profiles that he thinks "Fuckin' in the Bushes", "Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic" and "Where Did It All Go Wrong?" are "real pieces of music".
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants spent 25 weeks in the UK top 100 the fewest for any Oasis album. It was the 9th biggest selling album of 2000 in the UK.
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants debuted at #24 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S., selling about 55,000 units in its first week,[8] but sales slumped its second week and fell to #84 with a 64% sales drop.[9] The album received a huge sales hike following the VH1 airing of the group's Behind the Music in April 2000, jumping from #194 to #113 on the Billboard 200 the week following the episode's airing.[10] On March 2000, the IFPI certififed Oasis for selling one million units of the album in Europe.[11]
Eleven years after its release, Noel Gallagher said he regretted releasing the album, saying he was not feeling inspired as a composer, particularly for going off his drug addiction with prescription drugs, "which is fucking worse because they come from a doctor". This was partly a motivation to relegate the songwriting to the other bandmembers in later albums, as Noel considered "I'd slowed down as a writer and didn't feel like I could keep writing 20 songs every two years."[12]
All songs written and composed by Noel Gallagher, except "Little James" by Liam Gallagher.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Fuckin' in the Bushes" | 3:18 |
| 2. | "Go Let It Out" | 4:38 |
| 3. | "Who Feels Love?" | 5:44 |
| 4. | "Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is" | 4:27 |
| 5. | "Little James" | 4:15 |
| 6. | "Gas Panic!" | 6:08 |
| 7. | "Where Did It All Go Wrong?" | 4:26 |
| 8. | "Sunday Morning Call" | 5:12 |
| 9. | "I Can See a Liar" | 3:12 |
| 10. | "Roll It Over" | 6:31 |
| Japanese Edition | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 11. | "Let's All Make Believe" | 3:54 | |||||||
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Oasis
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Guest musicians
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Additional personnel
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| Preceded by Rise by Gabrielle |
UK number one album 11 March 2000 – 17 March 2000 |
Succeeded by The Man Who by Travis |
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