Maps of Music

Dig Out Your Soul (2008)

Where the lyrics of Dig Out Your Soul take you, and where it was really made.

Ralph Steadman suggested the title from a list of titles, and Noel's only condition was that the album must not be called Oasis.

Key places

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios (2008)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — Sessions for the album ran from August to December 2007 at Abbey Road Studios in London, with Dave Sardy producing. U2 had reserved the same studio areas, and Noel bought their booking in cash. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• Dig Out Your Soul: seventh studio album by the English rock band Oasis
• Released 6 October 2008 by Big Brother Recordings
• Recorded August to December 2007 at Abbey Road Studios, London
• Mixed in January and March 2008 at The Village Recorder, Los Angeles
• Produced by Dave Sardy, who had also produced much of the previous album Don't Believe the Truth (2005)
• Noel Gallagher wrote most of the songs; Liam Gallagher wrote three, with one each by Gem Archer and Andy Bell
• Three singles: The Shock of the Lightning, I'm Outta Time and Falling Down
• Limited boxset: album CD, bonus disc of extra material and remixes, documentary DVD, four 12-inch 45 rpm vinyl discs and a hardback artwork book

Background

• In a January 2007 NME interview, Noel described plans for a huge-sounding record with orchestra and choirs
• In October 2007 he told BBC 6 Music that the band had focused more on grooves than on the 'songy' sound of the last album
• In a November 2007 Reuters interview, Liam said the record would have no acoustic songs
• In a June 2008 talkSPORT interview, Noel called the album colossal and said it would sound great live
• The album was supported by the Dig Out Your Soul Tour, which opened at the WaMu Theater in Seattle and ran for eighteen months
• In August 2009 the brothers argued backstage at the Rock en Seine festival near Paris, cancelling the rest of the tour; Noel later announced that he had left the band

Recording

• Sessions began in July or August 2007 and concluded around Christmas, with intermittent breaks
• Zak Starkey became an official member of the band during the sessions
• Mixing in Los Angeles was slowed by constant equipment failure

Cover

• The album art was created by artist Julian House
• House came through the British creative agency Intro, which handled the album's promotion and made him the campaign's art director

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Oasis are an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991.
• The original line-up was Liam Gallagher, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll; Noel Gallagher joined a few months later as the fifth member.
• Noel became the de facto leader and wrote the songs for the band's first four albums.

Members

• Current members are Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher, Bonehead, Gem Archer and Andy Bell.
• Former members include McGuigan, McCarroll and Alan "Whitey" White.

Career

• The band signed to Creation Records in 1993 and debuted with Definitely Maybe (1994), which topped the UK Albums Chart.
• (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) became the UK's best-selling album of the 1990s.
• Be Here Now (1997) became the fastest-selling album in UK chart history.
• The band disbanded in 2009 after Noel left, and reformed in 2024.
• They have sold over 100 million records worldwide and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2026.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Received generally positive reviews, with a Metacritic score of 66 out of 100
• Many critics praised it as one of the strongest albums the band ever recorded
• Billboard's Jonathan Cohen said the group got back to its stripped-down rock roots
• The Observer's Luke Bainbridge gave it 4 out of 5 stars
• Rolling Stone's Jody Rosen gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and called it an almost comically generic Oasis release

Reappraisal

• Q magazine's 2011 list of the 250 best albums of Q's lifetime placed it at number 207

Records

• Sold 90,000 copies on its first day in the UK, the second fastest-selling album of 2008 behind Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
• Debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 200,866, the 51st fastest-selling album ever in the UK
• Debuted at number 5 on the US Billboard 200 with 53,000 copies sold
• Its US peak is the highest for an Oasis album since Be Here Now (1997), though its opening week was lower than for Don't Believe the Truth
• Peaked at number 4 in France and spent 32 weeks on the French album chart, the most of any Oasis album
• Ranked number 38 in Spin's best albums of 2008 list
• Ranked number 32 in Q's recordings of 2008 list
• Ranked number 22 in NME's best albums of 2008 list

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Buskers in New York performed four songs on the streets after applying online through the band's website, having received sheet music and lyrics
• An NME issue released on 16 September 2008 came with a free songbook covering three songs
• Comedian Russell Brand, a friend of Noel Gallagher, lent his voice to the album's TV campaign
• The album logo appeared as spray tags on pavements in London, Leeds, Glasgow, Brighton and Liverpool, including the forecourt of the newly opened Shepherd's Bush station
• The issue of Abbey Road was resolved when Noel bought U2's booking in cash, because the studios preferred cash payments to credit
• Falling Down was used as the opening theme song of the anime series Eden of the East

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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