Oasis - 'Stop The Clocks' (Big Brother) Released 20/11/06

Despite the painful mediocrity and almost self-parody in some outings of more recent years, until you listen to the likes of Liam’s visceral bile on ‘Rock n’ Roll Star’ on this collection, it’s sometimes easy to forget the monumental impact Oasis had when they were at their nation-conquering peak in the mid nineties. True, they never pretended to be musical pioneers pushing forward boundaries and all that bollocks, but in the truest sense they were a classic rock band imbued with a captivating attitude, trademark looks and purely brilliant tunes. Hand picked by Noel Gallagher himself, ‘Stop The Clocks’, Oasis’ first ‘best of’ package, pertinently showcases some of their pivotal career moments and some of the fleeting highlights of more recent material.

With the majority of the 18 tracks on the collection either lifted from their first two albums or the B-sides to the singles that they spawned, it says something about the band’s take on their own material that they omitted so much tripe from the likes of ‘Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants’ and ‘Be Here Now.’ Yet, the way ‘Stop The Clocks’ is pieced together, the album is perfectly balanced, with the likes of the retrogressive pomp of ‘Lyla’ and the whimsical refrain of ‘The Importance of Being Idle’ sitting perfectly alongside the now classic ‘Wonderwall’ and the equally seminal ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol.’

Naturally, from a hit-strewn career there are some notable omissions. The string led brilliance of ‘Whatever’ is sacrificed in favour of its inferior yet now omnipotent flip side ‘Half The World Away’ (thanks, of course, to its appearance on The Royal Family.) ‘Roll With It’ too is another glaring miss, yet with such a plethora of hits in their cannon, there’s bound to be some disappointment. Fuck, they can save the rest of their songs for the obligatory retrospective box-set they’ll release some time in the future. This aside, as soon as you hear the inspiring words of ‘Live Forever’, or Liam’s trademark “sheiiiinne” on ‘Some Might Say’ or the sprawling radiance of ‘Champagne Supernova’, you can forget any minor quibbles about the track selection.  

Split over two CDs, it’s aptly left to two of the band’s most poignant moments to bookend each disc – courtesy of the Noel sung ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ and ‘The Masterplan.’ At Oasis’ lofty coke-fuelled, ego-driven peak, Noel Gallagher once said they’d never make a greatest hits package. One listen to ‘Stop The Clocks’ and you think thank fuck they did.