The Masterplan

With the exception of their debut single, Supersonic, none of these had been released in America, hence the idea of compiling the best of the B-sides onto an album for their benefit. The track listing was apparently chosen by fans on the Internet with some influence from Noel Gallagher, and two of his justly favourite compositions, Underneath The Sky and The Masterplan, make it onto the album alongside obvious musts like Acquiesce and Fade Away. All date from 1994 and 1995 apart from two 1997 recordings that appear on singles extracted from Be Here Now.

The biggest omission is the non-album single Whatever, perhaps excluded on the grounds that it was not a B-side. Step Out (the B-side of Don't Look Back In Anger), removed from Morning Glory for legal reasons due to its similarity to Stevie Wonder's Uptight, misses out again, as does the anthemic Round Are Way, and the Slade cover Cum On Feel The Noize. However, rockers like Headshrinker and the Bacharach-inspired Going Nowhere easily earn their places in the company of the likes of the acoustic ballad Talk Tonight and the more recent (though written in 1990) Going Nowhere.

Completists should note that the live I Am The Walrus, recorded at a soundcheck in Gleneagles, fades at 6.24, whereas on the Cigarettes And Alcohol EP it is complete at 8.14. Listen Up has been shorn of 18 seconds from its guitar solo, and Half A World Away, now known to the nation as the theme of The Royle Family, inexplicably fades out just a couple of seconds short of its natural end as heard on the Whatever EP.

However, on the strength of these supposedly second division songs, perhaps there are actually three essential Oasis albums

Probably the most important fact is that most of this stuff is pre-Be Here Now, pre superstardom. Acquiese was written on a train, (It's Good) To Be Free during a bad tour. There's a raw edge to this, partially present in Definitely Maybe and absolutely absent in Be Here Now. It's what's good about the Gallaghers in the first place, sadly an essense now lost. They would do well to rediscover it, and it's surprising that, after The Masterplan, they still didn't.

But that's the future. As it is, the album has some of Oasis' best songs. Ever. Acquiese is heroic to put it simply - a Noel/Liam duet, and all the more memorable for it. Talk Tonight is an acoustic Oasis legend, and gems like Half The World Away are as yet unbearably unreleased (though it made it as the themetune for The Royle Family). The title track is a major curiosity. Packing more power than Wonderwall ever could, it's a deep, string-laden Whatever of a song, yet with Noel's best lyrics (trust him to put them in a B-Side) and a fantastic vocal. Frankly it's a mystery to the world why on earth he kept this masterpiece a B-Side.

Still, stuff like Underneath the Sky and Going Nowhere (fantastic lyrics and a great Baccarac tune, there) are no less sophisticated. Fade Away and Headshrinker are really, really raw Oasis. Fast, hummable, fantastic. The Swamp Song may only be a warmup song, but it feels like an essense rather than a song - a masterful wallop of a tune, stomping along from start to finish. We could perhaps do without the unnecessary influence reminder that is the I Am The Walrus cover... yes, we KNOW you love the beatles, but how about you carve out your own name for a change rather than plugging them... but all is made well again with decent tunes Listen Up and Rockin' Chair. (It's Good) To Be Free is one of the less happy moments of the album, but it's still an accomplished one. Stay Young is loathed by the band, but poppy or not it's well written and cheerful... and quite irresistable: "Hey, stay young and invincible."

This is distilled Oasis, the band at their truest and best. No egos have tainted it, no Wonderwalls have gotten too much in the way. It sounds like a bunch of guys making music, with or without the money. And it's times like that I wish Live Forever and Wonderwall had never occured - maybe then we'd get a career of Masterplan albums. Alas that wasn't to be, and they continued on with their "we're great, you're not" attitude to everything. Any self respecting fan should have this, as it will pretty much explain what it is you see in the band. Easily on a par with Definitely Maybe, this could well be the best they've done.