Masterplan

It's often the way of rock & roll--the accidental stuff you don't sweat over often turns out to be better than the supposedly generation-defining monolith you rupture your life to expel. So it was with Oasis and their third album, Be Here Now--soaked with sweat, it left Noel and Liam purple-faced with effort and stank like old egg sandwiches in a sock. Meanwhile The Masterplan--b-sides and live tracks--came out a year later and effortlessly reminded everyone why they'd liked the hairy brothers in the first place. "Acquiesce"--don't worry, they admitted they didn't know what the word meant, they just liked the sound of it--was the greatest single they never released: a huge, affirmative sibling bellow-fest that makes "D'You Know What I Mean?" sound like a polite old grandma coughing in comparison. The mournful "Rockin' Chair"--another "lost" Oasis classic, makes it onto here, along with a truly execrable live version of the Beatles' "I Am The Walrus", which actually sounds like they got a walrus to sing it, but no matter. The magic, so latterly absent in Oasis's career, is here in spades. --Caitlin Moran