Darkness That Rocks - At Least Until The Next Masterplan: “Sunday Morning Call”

The Good: Solid single and b-sides, Great music, lyrics, Generally good voice
The Bad: Only three tracks!
The Basics: With only three tracks, "Sunday Morning Call" revisits one of Oasis's most neglected classics and adds two new tracks that are intriguing.


Noel or Liam Gallagher, of Oasis, once said of their album Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, something to the effect that the album was going to be spectacular or a spectacular failure. The album is one of their better albums - it's hard to follow on the heels of Be Here Now and The Masterplan - though it did not blow away the market and revitalize Oasis the way the group, I suspect, wanted it to. Still, that so few tracks from Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants made it onto the recent Oasis "Best of" compilation Stop The Clocks seems an unfortunate oversight on the part of Noel Gallagher (who chose the tracks for Stop The Clocks).

There is no better example of Noel's failure to appreciate works from Standing On The Shoulder of Giants than the neglect of "Sunday Morning Call." "Sunday Morning Call," available as a "single" c.d. is one of Oasis's most powerful and poetic songs. Largely neglected in the U.S., the song "Sunday Morning Call" is one of Oasis's last real rock anthems. I suppose it's hard to market a rock anthem on loneliness. Wait a moment, there are a LOT of rock anthems celebrating loneliness . . . !

"Sunday Morning Call," the single, is a discreet disc with only three tracks, "Sunday Morning Call," "Carry Us All," and "Full On."

"Sunday Morning Call," the song, employs psychedelic instrumentals backing Noel's lone voice to open the song with a haunting, lonely sound. As he sings, "Slip your shoes on and then out you crawl / To a day that couldn't give you more / But what for?" he perfectly captures the dementia of loneliness. It is only then that the drums and guitars come in full. Oasis wisely engineers the track to keep Liam's voice front and center as he delivers one of the most haunting poems Noel Gallagher wrote. I suppose it ought not to be a surprise that a track with the refrain, "And in your head do you feel / What you're not supposed to feel? / And you take what you want / But you won't get hope for free / You need more time / Because your thoughts and words won't last forever more / And I'm not sure / It'll ever work out right." This is dark music, this is the essence of human emotion, in this case, loneliness, distilled perfectly into words and music.

The second track, only available on the single, "Carry Us All," is a rare exploration of religion in music. Noel and Liam rail against god and religion and implore the listener to put faith in their fellow man. What philosophers, to declare that we can only depend on one another! The thing is, the song rocks and the message resonates with Noel's delivery of his refrain, "Everyone's come for a quick sure-fire solution / But faith in any god is going to bury us all . . . Have faith in what you've got and it will carry us all." Man, it makes me wish this would be played on the radio these days in the States! This is, perhaps, the most pop of the three tracks, though it still rocks.

"Full On" is a straight rock and roll track that is basically a "get pumped," "kick some butt" song. While not the strongest track Oasis has ever released, it does remind the listener that Oasis knows how to rock. Its use of strong drums and thrashing guitars, couples well with the demanding lyrics, "You're gonna stay tonight / It's where we both belong . . ." The only real detraction to "Full On" is that some of the vocals, because of the force with which they are sung, come out somewhat garbled.

The only place to get "Full On" and "Carry Us All," at the moment, is this single for "Sunday Morning Call." I live in hope that Oasis will release another album like The Masterplan, which would collect their b-sides from the last three albums. Until then, "Sunday Morning Call" remains a decent investment. The title single is a worthy track and the two other tracks are, at the least good.

This is a must for any Oasis fan and a decent investment - I imagine it can be found cheap somewhere - for anyone who likes dark, moody rock and roll. The best track might well be "Carry Us All," the weakest of the three tracks is "Full On."

For other Oasis works, please check out my reviews of:
Definitely Maybe
"Whatever" (Single)
(What's The Story?) Morning Glory
“Wonderwall” (single)
“Don’t Look Back In Anger” (single)
Be Here Now
"Don't Go Away" (Single)
The Masterplan
Familiar To Millions
Heathen Chemistry
Don't Believe The Truth
Stop The Clocks
Dig Out Your Soul

7/10

For other music reviews, check out my alphabetical listing of all the albums and singles I have reviewed at my Music Review Index Page!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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