It is the album Noel Gallagher swore would never be released - and when it comes to the Gallagher brothers, he literally would have sworn like a sailor - but low and behold it's here, the Oasis best-of album.

Due to the end of Oasis' recording contract with Sony BMG, and an almost certain move by the company to squeeze every penny out of the Brothers Gallagher back catalouge, Noel made sure to intervene on the planned "Best of", to avoid it being "shit" as he so eloquently put it (despite the fact declaring he never wanted to release one until the band was breaking up).

The first step taken by Gallagher was to make it clear that "Stop The Clocks" (a title originally intended for "Don't Believe The Truth" and much mooted Whatever type single of the same name) would be a 'Best-Of' singles, album tracks and b-sides - and not simply a whole bunch of singles chucked onto a disc. And you know what - this album is much stronger for it.

Any fan of Oasis would be well aware that most of the single choices over the years have been pretty ordinary (when compared to some of the tracks that remained untouched on their better, and even worse, albums). As much as Roll With It is a great song, it was possibly the weakest of any of the tracks on the near perfect "(What's The Story) Morning Glory?". So it is with open arms accept this well put together retrospective album that really encompasses every quality that Oasis - love them or hate them - have offered since breaking onto the scene in the early 90's.

There's a good mix of everything here - from the commercial hits Wonderwall, Live Forever and Don't Look Back In Anger to some of the groups most magnificent and under rated hits in the brilliant The Masterplan, Some Might Say and Songbird.

For the keen Oasis fans, you will no doubt notice that "Stop the Clocks" focuses heavily on, arguably, the band's most popular albums, "Definitely Maybe" and "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" (each contributing five tracks and four B-sides). In fact, only two tracks appear from "Don't Believe the Truth", and one track each from "Standing on the Shoulder of Giants" and "Heathen Chemistry" (an underrated and harshly critisised album in my opinion). But the big surprise is that "Be Here Now" is overlooked completely. Granted, Noel has been quoted on numerous occasions that the third album was "A Coked Up Mess" (Case In Point: Magic Pie), however I would argue that there are some tunes on there that were pretty stiff to be left out in All Around The World and Don't Go Away).

But perhaps that is the strength of Oasis' career, that you could easily chop and change the track listings here several times - and it would still be a near flawless compilation...unless they included the terrible I Can See A Liar (the worst part about that song was the entire "Giants" album was recorded off drugs, maybe drugs aren't that bad after all!).

In a sign of the times, "Stop The Clocks" barely made it into the Top 100 in the US, while it missed out on #1 in the UK due to Westlife, in Australia it lumbered in the mid 30's (but then again everyone interested probably already has the albums anyways). The boys sadly don't have the pulling power they used to - but what band does after 10 years - but for those who were around in the hay day, this album would have been "The Shit".

A great double compilation, which will hopefully be picked up by a new generation in a few years time, and show the world once again that Oasis weren't just another Beatles rip off - but were Oasis.