A decade later, can Oasis stage a comeback?

That was 10 years ago, though, and imitation can only get you so far. In the long, painful time that has passed since then, Oasis has gone from truly being the "biggest band in the world" to being the world's biggest has-been, as outdated and desperately unfashionable in this world of indie rock domination as Led Zepp or the Rolling Stones were at the apex of punk. In the British media, songwriter Noel Gallagher is a laughingstock, a dinosaur remnant of Britpop. His widely scorned condemnation of hip-hop as "totally wrong" for the British music festival Glastonbury only solidified his status as an old, behind-the-times crank. But forget Britain, where Oasis' reputation as the ultimate "lads down at the pub" band is inextricably tied up with issues of class. Just go ask any American on the street what he thinks of Oasis, and I can guarantee you the answer will be simple: "Didn't they break up?"

Well the answer is no: The group did not break up, even after releasing three critically mauled albums in a row. Then again, Noel and Liam Gallagher aren't known for their humility: That much is clear from the sneering arrogance of their music. And here they are again in 2008, horrendously un-cool, horrendously passe and dropping their latest album, "Dig Out Your Soul." And you know what? If you divorce it from all your expectations - from the karaoke-dirge of "Wonderwall" or the memory of the time when "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" was the biggest album in the world or everything that's happened in popular music since 1998 - it's actually a decent rock album: short, catchy and undemanding. As with every album released by a has-been band, however, it's impossible to forget how good Oasis used to be. While it may be the job of critics to detach themselves from preconceptions and judge music on its own terms, sometimes that's just not going to happen.

As usual, Oasis is ruled by its influences, and many songs here can be traced to other, better bands, from the bluesy Zeppelin stomp of "Waiting for the Rapture," to the soft, Stone Roses-like shuffle of "Falling Down." Still, it's the Beatles who overshadow the album: On "Dig Out Your Soul," the Gallagher brothers take their well-documented Beatles obsession to new heights, ripping off George Harrison on the distorted, zither-laden "To Be Where There's Life" and effectively reproducing the ending of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" on the album's psychedelic closer, "Soldier On." There's also the gloopy, cringe-inducing "I'm Outta Time," Liam Gallagher's ham-fisted attempt at writing a Lennon ballad that ends up sounding more like a Celine ballad. Urgh...

In one way, however, "Dig Out Your Soul" is a distinctly different record from the rest of Oasis' discography: Within the first few seconds of the opening track, anyone who's faintly acquainted with the band will no doubt be struck by how tight and stripped-down the sound is. It's a restraint that characterizes much of the album. Gone are the deafening-wall-of-sound productions that made the band's name, gone the choruses seemingly designed to be sung by drunken football hooligans. It's a major change, one of the first signs that Oasis has stumbled out of its classic rock time machine into an awareness of what's going on in contemporary music.

Now, when I say "stripped down," of course it's not Leonard Cohen or Elliott Smith or anything; Oasis churns out loud, commercial rock, and it always will. There is, though, a sense of self-control here that has certainly never before been heard on an Oasis album, from the gritty, strutting "Bag It Up," to the terse, minimal blues of "(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady." Even more standard Oasis rockers, like the blazing, horrendously catchy single "Shock of the Lightning," are surprisingly stream-lined.

And on the whole, it's a change for the worse. Sure, it may finally show Oasis moving on from trying to recapture the heady excess of its glory days, but in going for this more "tasteful" approach, Oasis has decisively abandoned what made it great in the first place. "Dig Out Your Soul," more than anything else, made me nostalgic for the time when Liam Gallagher would sneer away over a gloriously uncontrolled mess of smashing drums and crashing, chaotic guitar. And that's the last thing I expected to feel when I bought the disc, because it's also that un-ironic sense of excess that made Oasis seem like such a relic amid the relentlessly hip posturing of contemporary rock.

But hey, if ridiculously un-cool genres like '80s pop and disco can be appropriated and reconfigured into the height of cool, who's to say that one day Oasis won't be looked back on as the hipster of its time? Ok, it's unlikely, but I'd rather see Oasis being itself than thinning out its sound like it has on "Dig Out Your Soul," an appropriate title perhaps for its most breezily enjoyable but also easily forgettable album in a long time. After all, if I'm being honest with myself, it was always Oasis' obnoxious arrogance that made its music so darn fun to listen to. Hearing the band in 2008, watered down and polite, really sounding like 40-year-olds for the first time, is more dispiriting than that the music itself is actually quite listenable.

3 out of 5

Pros: It's all very listenable. Noel Gallagher, for one, certainly hasn't forgotten how to write a good, catchy, rock song, and his talents shine through on tracks like "Shock of the Lightning" and "Waiting for the Rapture."

Cons: A tasteful sense of restraint that goes against everything Oasis stand for. It might just be me, but I'll take the riotous, unruly hedonism of its debut "Definitely, Maybe" over "Dig Out Your Soul's" desperate attempts at sophistication any day of the week.