Published on Feb 25, 2017
There are many superlatives can throw around about The Masterplan, so let’s just deal with the facts. This is the album that should have followed (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?. It’s comprised of 15 B-sides, but it rarely feels like a compilation. And because Noel Gallagher had so many songs pouring out between 1994 and 1996, he would routinely put two or three B-sides on the band’s singles – songs that could stand alongside the album tracks quality-wise from Glory and Definitely Maybe.
The obvious precedent here is the Beatles, who routinely released some of their best work on singles. So much like Past Masters did, The Masterplan rounds up the vast majority of those B-sides, from all-out snarling rockers like “Acquiesce” and “Fade Away” to calmer moments like “Talk Tonight” and “Underneath the Sky,” not to mention an unnecessary, long and rollicking cover of “I Am The Walrus.”
Oh, and those two instrumental rock snippets from Morning Glory were actually part of a proper track called “The Swamp Song,” presented here in its full length, and it’s a fun (albeit repetitive) instrumental blast of blues-rock guitar noise. “(It’s Good) To Be Free” is one of the great Oasis tracks that never made an album, along with the melancholy title track, the near-punk “Headshrinker” and “Acquiesce,” the latter of which was released as a single (that means a B-side was re-released as an A-side, which should tell you how popular Oasis was for a while there).
There are a few songs that sound like standard Oasis fare, midtempo rockers that rage and grin but are more sound than substance, but every Oasis album has those, so it’s to be expected. If you enjoyed the band’s first two albums, you need this one to complete the collection and flesh out the story of all that Oasis (Mark 1) had to offer in their heyday (and even then, it still misses a handful of great non-album tracks from this era, like “Whatever” and “Take Me Away”).
The Masterplan is the rare compilation/rarities album that becomes something more than the sum of its parts; it’s integral listening for Oasis fans of any stripe, especially those who loved the albums and want the rest of the story.