Heathen Chemistry

Heathen Chemistry
Studio album from Oasis
Publication (s)	July 1, 2002
Label (s)	Epic / Sony BMG , Big Brother
Format (s)	CD , vinyl , cassette , DVD , MiniDisc
Genre (s)	Britpop
Title (number)	11 + 1
running time	47:53
occupation	Liam Gallagher : vocals Noel Gallagher : lead guitar , vocals Gem Archer : rhythm guitar Andy Bell : Bass Alan White : drums , percussion
production	Oasis
Studio (s)	Wheeler End, London
chronology Familiar to Millions Heathen Chemistry Don't believe the truth

Heathen Chemistry is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Oasis . It was released in July 2002.

Around 1 million records were sold in the UK alone, making it one of the top 10 selling albums of the year list. Almost 4 million records went over the counter worldwide. However, the reviews were rather mixed, although Heathen Chemistry was received more friendly by the press than the two previous albums.

description

Recordings

The recordings were made between late 2001 and early 2002. It is the first Oasis studio album that was recorded with the new members, bassist Andy Bell and guitarist Gem Archer . Bell and Archer each contributed one song, Liam Gallagher wrote three, so this album finally marks the end of Noel Gallagher's artistic sovereignty. Liam already wrote the song Little James for the previous album Standing on the Shoulder of Giants . This trend continued on the next album Don't Believe the Truth , on which less than half of the songs were written by Noel Gallagher. In addition, the long-time drummer Alan White can be heard for the last time, who was kicked out of the band in 2004 due to a lack of commitment to recordings.

Outcouplings

All four singles released moved into the top 3 of the British charts: The Hindu Times , their sixth number one in the UK , Stop Crying Your Heart Out , the BBC's anthem for the departure of the English national soccer team from the 2002 World Cup, the double A-side Little by Little / She Is Love - both sung by Noel - and Songbird , the first single written by Liam. An excerpt from the song Hung in a Bad Place was used for television commercials for the women's underwear line Victoria's Secret in the USA .

Sound

With the sound of the album, Oasis went back to their roots. After the two musically heavily overloaded albums Be Here Now and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants , the band strived for a more simply structured sound. The guitars sound like Oasis loud and catchy, but are not as over-present as on the recordings in 1997 . There are short pieces played on acoustic guitars ( Songbird , She Is Love ), the stadium rock anthems ( Little by Little , Stop Crying Your Heart Out ), three-chord rockers ( The Hindu Times , Hung in a Bad Place ) and more experimental songs on which the band tries out unfamiliar song structures ( Born on a Different Cloud ) and rhythms ( Better Man , A Quick Peep ).

Reviews

The trade press did not give a uniform assessment. The basic tenor is that this album is better than its two predecessors, but opinions on whether it is a high-quality or a mediocre album are different. Singles like Stop Crying Your Heart Out and Liam Gallagher's contributions like Songbird were consistently praised, but the album was attested to a lack of quality compared to earlier works. The most frequent points of criticism were the lack of innovation, the rigid retention of old song schemes and the production. This judgment has meanwhile also spread among some of the fans, although the album seemed to revive the fan euphoria, especially in Great Britain and Italy, and recorded strong sales figures. Noel Gallagher himself called the album of his time one of his best, although he noted that the band was not musically where he imagined it to be.

Leak

All 11 songs on the album had already appeared on the Internet three months before it was released. The final versions of the songs Little by Little and Better Man differed slightly from the launched versions.

Naming

The title of the album was inspired by a t-shirt with the imprint "The Society of Heathen Chemists", which Noel bought in Ibiza. The song The Hindu Times got its name in a similar way : Noel saw a corresponding lettering on a T-shirt while taking photos for the "100 Greatest Guitarists" issue of GQ magazine. Originally the track was an instrumental piece ; all instrumental pieces of the recordings were given real names instead of order names like instrumental 1 and so on.

Track list

1. The Hindu Times ( Noel Gallagher ) - 3:49
2. Force of Nature (Noel Gallagher) - 4:51
3. Hung in a Bad Place ( Gem Archer ) - 3:28
4. Stop Crying Your Heart Out (Noel Gallagher) - 4:59
5. Songbird ( Liam Gallagher ) - 2:07
6. Little by Little (Noel Gallagher) - 4:52
7. A Quick Peep ( Andy Bell ) - 1:17
8. (Probably) All in the Mind (Noel Gallagher) - 4:02
9. She Is Love (Noel Gallagher) - 3:09
10. Born on a Different Cloud (Liam Gallagher) - 6:08
11. Better Man (Liam Gallagher) - 38:02 (song ends after 4:20)
    • contains hidden track after 33:13: The Cage - 4:49

Singles

information
"The Hindu Times" April 15, 2002 Music / Text: Noel Gallagher Producer: Oasis Chart placement: # 1 UK, # 31 GER
"Stop Crying Your Heart Out" Release: June 17th, 2002 Music / Text: Noel Gallagher Producer: Oasis Chart placement: # 2 UK, # 48 GER
"Little by Little" / "She Is Love" Release: September 23, 2002 Music / Text: Noel Gallagher Producer: Oasis Chart placement: # 2 (UK)
"Songbird" Release: February 3rd, 2003 Music / Text: Liam Gallagher Producer: Oasis Chart placement: # 3 UK

Individual evidence

1. ↑ release date
2. ^ AllMusicGuide Review
3. ^ NME Review
4. ↑ Musikexpress Review
5. ↑ discover.de Review
6. ↑ taz.de Review
7. ↑ plattentests.de Review
8. ↑ Visions.de Review
9. ^ NME Review
10. ↑ laut.de Review
11. ↑ [1]
12. ^ Pitchfork Review ( Memento from June 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
13. ^ RollingStone Review
14. ^ AllMusicGuide Review
15. ↑ Documentation Part 1 on YouTube
16. ↑ Documentation part 2 on YouTube
17. ↑ Sunday Times Promo Documentation on YouTube
18. ↑ [2]
19. ↑ [3]
20. ↑ [4]
21. ↑ [5]