Standing on the Shoulder of Giants

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants is the fourth studio album by English rock band Oasis, released on 28 February 2000. It was the band's first album under their new record label Big Brother Recordings. In the year preceding the album's release, Alan McGee closed Creation Records, and Oasis had lost two founding members (Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan) and hired new producer Mark "Spike" Stent to replace Owen Morris.

The album marked a significant change from the Britpop scene to a modern psychedelic record complete with drum loops, samples, electric sitar, Mellotron, synthesisers and backward guitars, resulting in an album more experimental with electronica and heavy psychedelic rock influences. Songs such as "Go Let It Out", the psychedelic-influenced "Who Feels Love?", and the trip hop sounds on "Gas Panic!" departed from the band's earlier style. This album also marked the first time that lead singer Liam Gallagher contributed on songwriting ("Little James"), and this process continued for their subsequent albums, instead of relying solely on Noel Gallagher's songwriting as they had for the first three albums.

It is the 16th-fastest-selling album in UK chart history, selling over 310,000 copies in its first week. Standing on the Shoulder of Giants has been certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry and has sold around 208,000 copies in the US.

Background

Following the completion of the Be Here Now Tour in 1998, Oasis took their first extended break from touring and recording since being signed by Creation Records in 1993. During this period, Noel subsequently quit using cocaine and entered a period of relative sobriety for the first time since Oasis had entered the music industry. This led him to re-evaluate many of the relationships in his life that had been fostered and maintained by drug usage. As a result, many of the songs on the album and its subsequent B-sides, including "Gas Panic", "Where Did It All Go Wrong?", "Roll It Over", and "(As Long As They've Got) Cigarettes In Hell", focus thematically on changes experienced by the songwriter as a result of his newfound sobriety.

When the band reconvened at Château de La Colle Noire in France to begin recording the new collection of songs, Noel insisted on a no-drugs policy in the studio. This led to tensions within the group, specifically between Noel and two founding members of the band, rhythm guitarist Bonehead and bassist Guigsy. It was during this period that Noel wrote "Let's All Make Believe", a B-side to the "Go Let It Out" single. The intra-band tensions ultimately climaxed when Bonehead poured a bottle of wine on producer Spike Stent at 4 a.m. The guitarist then announced his departure from the group in the 10 July 1999 issue of NME, with Guigsy announcing his departure from the group the following day.

The album's title misquotes an expression by Sir Isaac Newton: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". Noel Gallagher saw the quote on the edge of a £2 coin while in a pub, and liked it so much he thought it would be a suitable name for Oasis' new album. He then wrote the name on the side of a cigarette packet while drunk, and upon awakening in the morning, he realised he had written "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants". He had also accidentally written "a bum title" on the packet instead of "album title".

Noel decided to drop the equipment used in the three previous albums and instead buy "loads of really weird pedals, old guitars, and small amps" as the lack of a deadline on the album allowed him to "take quite a few days just messing around" and experiment with new musical landscapes. Noel played nearly all the instruments on the album himself. The album features Noel and Liam Gallagher alongside drummer Alan White, who are also the only ones depicted on the sleeve of the album. Guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell (Bonehead's and Guigsy's replacements, respectively) would be officially included in the band shortly after the album's release.

Songs

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants features a heavy psychedelic influence, The festival's MC, Rikki Farr, is heard berating the crowd: "We put this festival on, you bastards, with a lot of love! We worked for one year for you pigs! And you wanna break our walls down and you wanna destroy it? Well you go to hell!" Noel's panic attacks inspired another song, the melodic, organ-driven "Where Did It All Go Wrong?". Noel sings it because, according to him, Liam struggled to sing the higher notes. Noel also sings on "Sunday Morning Call", a song "about certain real people who I know but who, obviously, remain nameless".

The album contains Liam Gallagher's first songwriting credit on an Oasis album, "Little James", a lullaby written as a tribute to his then-newborn son. Liam claimed that it took "all of three minutes" to write it. Noel described "Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is" and "I Can See a Liar" as "the two shit tracks". The former was compared to the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" (1970). in the foreground and the former World Trade Center in the background. To create the cover photo, MacPherson captured the same frame every half an hour in 18 hours during the whole day's course; the photos were digitally composited into the final picture. All of the singles released from this album contained artwork that was based on the album artwork; the shot used for "Go Let It Out" can be seen above one of the buildings at the front, which depicts five men playing football. This shot was taken from the roof of a football stadium, and the footballers from the car park were edited onto the rooftop on the final cover.

This album was the first Oasis artwork not to be created by Brian Cannon at Microdot.

Release

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants was released in the UK on 28 February 2000 and spent 29 weeks on the UK album chart, debuting at number 1 with sales of 311,000 copies, dropping to number 2 with 49,000 copies, an 85% decline. It fell to number 6 in its third week, with a 56% decline in sales. In its fourth week the album fell out of the top ten, ending up at number 11. With 29 weeks on the charts, it has the fewest weeks for any Oasis studio album. It was the 26th biggest-selling album of 2000 in the UK.

Walmart chose not to sell the album, objecting to "Fuckin' in the Bushes" having profanity in the title.

Standing on the Shoulder of Giants debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200 in the US, selling about 55,000 units in its first week, but sales slumped its second week and fell to No. 84 with a 64% sales drop. The album received a huge sales hike following the VH1 airing of the group's Behind the Music in April 2000, jumping from No. 194 to No. 113 on the Billboard 200 the week following the episode's airing. In March 2000, the IFPI certified Oasis for selling one million units of the album in Europe.

Reception

The album received mixed reviews from critics. The B-side to "Go Let It Out", "Let's All Make Believe", was featured in Qs top 500 lost tracks, who also said that if "Let's All Make Believe" were on the album, "it probably would have carried the album to another star". The magazine awarded the album four stars out of five,

Several commentators acknowledged the band's growing maturity.

Track listing

Personnel

Oasis

Liam Gallagher – lead vocals (tracks 2–6, 9, 10), tambourine
Noel Gallagher – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, Mellotron, backing vocals, lead vocals (tracks 7, 8), co-lead vocals (track 4), production
Alan White – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

Paul Stacey – keyboards, organ, synthesizer, Mellotron, additional lead guitar (track 1), backwards guitar (track 3), bass guitar (tracks 3, 6, 9, 10), additional acoustic guitar (track 7)
P. P. Arnold and Linda Lewis – backing vocals (tracks 1, 4, 10)
Mark Coyle – electric sitar (track 4), twelve-string acoustic guitar (track 5)
Mark Feltham – harmonica (track 6)
Charlotte Glasson – flute (track 6)

Production

Mark "Spike" Stent – production, engineering
Paul Stacey – engineering
Jan "Stan" Kybert – programming, Pro Tools
Wayne Wilkins – assistant engineering
Paul "P-Dub" Walton – assistant engineering
Aaron Pratley – assistant engineering
Steve "Rambo" Robinson – studio assistant
Howie Weinberg – mastering

Charts

Weekly charts

{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Weekly chart performance for Standing on the Shoulder of Giants

!Chart (2000)

!Peak<br />position

!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)

| style="text-align:center;"|4

!scope="row"|Spanish Albums (AFYVE)

|align="center"|8

! scope="row"| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)

| 1

Year-end charts