If you like Oasis, you’ll like Dig Out Your Soul. If you’ve never liked Oasis, well, there’s not much here to change your mind. This album finds the band pulling out all the usual Oasis sonic cues – distorted guitars, feedback, noise, chunky piano chording and lots of melodic hooks. On this outing, the band goes for a less dense sound than usual. Make no mistake, there’s still lots of arena-ready rock ‘n roll, but the audio quality seems a little cleaner, with more definition. Liam’s voice is less raspy on a lot of the numbers, and it’s not a bad thing.

The band stretches just a little, with some interesting harmonies and a few unexpected chord changes here and there. As usual, there are lots of tips of the hat to the Beatles. Zak Starkey gets a little space for a drum solo on the new classic ‘Shock of the Lightning’, ever so slightly reminiscent of Ringo’s moment on Abbey Road. On ‘I’m Outta Time’, Liam takes another swing at writing a Lennonesque piano ballad, like ‘Born on a Different Cloud’. This song has a stronger melody and a self assured, but not cocky, vocal delivery. Nice one. John Lennon’s voice makes a guest appearance in the background from an old interview.

More Beatles influence shows up on ‘To Be Where There’s Life’, with droning Indian instruments, and a melody lifted straight from another Liverpool band, The La’s (check out ‘Son of a Gun’). ‘The Nature of Reality’ starts off to make you think they’re about to launch into Helter Skelter, just for a second, before it detours.

If there’s any disappointment for Oasis fans here, it might just be in the lyrics, which occasionally feel lazy. How many songs have they done that mention “in my mind”, “peace of mind”, or “come in, come out”? But still, it’s another highly listenable album and Oasis fans will dig into their wallets to dig out their soul.