The Oasis song that gave Noel Gallagher the “confidence to carry on”
If Oasis had been able to stick the landing a little better with Be Here Now, chances are they could have gone down in legend the same way their heroes, The Beatles, did. The ground had already been laid out for them to create something classic, but somewhere along the line, that next classic album was buried under the Gallagher brothers’ massive egos and a Mount Everest-sized mountain of cocaine. After that, Noel was officially lost in the woods, but it took the song ‘Go Let It Out’ to bring him back from the brink.
Given how big they were following their Knebworth concerts, they should have logically taken some time off. If they had time to recuperate, they might have had time to stay the course and make something that wasn’t as frontloaded with guitars. As a result, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants tends to feel like a comedown album from the massive excess the band already went down.
Although the project is a decent departure from where Oasis had been, it was missing a lot without the original lineup. Since Bonehead and Guigsy had left the fold by this point, that signature wall of sound was suddenly gone, instead replaced by a bunch of drum loops and songs that were either poignant or hot garbage, depending on where you were in the track listing.
For all of the tracks that never should have made the cut, like Liam’s ‘Little James’, the album gets off to a great start with ‘Go Let It Out’. After ‘Fuckin’ in the Bushes’ acts as the sort of overture for the entire project, hearing the steady acoustic guitars and Mellotron is enough to remind everyone that Noel didn’t completely forget how to write songs.
When putting together material for the album, Noel would even say that he thinks the piece helped him carry on past the band’s near-split, saying, “With ‘Go Let It Out’, I know I can combine rock ‘n’ roll with a contemporary feel, and that gives me the confidence to carry on.” For as much as Noel likes to take credit for a lot of their genius moments, that might be down to producer Mark ‘Spike’ Stent, who has somehow made a career out of working with the most eclectic roster of artists from Bjork to the Spice Girls.
This isn’t some kind of artsy record or pop turn for the band. This was them fully embracing their reputation as a classic rock pastiche, with even Noel calling the song one of the closest that they have ever come to sounding like The Beatles.
The track might sound cool, but it definitely isn’t the best introduction to the record. Across every other song, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants is a far more morose experience than anything they ever made. It includes lyrics inspired by Noel’s gradual acceptance of his state of mind following the band’s massive Be Here Now, from dealing with panic attacks on ‘Gas Panic’ to dealing with the afterglow on ‘Where Did It All Go Wrong’.
Noel may have touched the sky with Oasis, but their fourth album wasn’t the epic return to form that many people expected. It was a reflection of what happens when you don’t find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and outside of ‘Go Let It Out’, Noel seemed to be coming to terms with the fact that maybe his dream for Oasis was over.
