With the silly season well and truly upon us, you could be forgiven for thinking the Gallagher brothers are cashing in to buy dear old Peggy a bigger Christmas tree this year. Not so.

The Masterplan may be a collection of B-sides, re-mastered and readymade for repackaging in tasteless festive paper, but it still beats the hell out of most of the stocking fillers currently on offer.

And as the 80s juggernaut steams in to hijack the stagnant charts at a frightening rate, with every man and his dog desperately trying to squeeze back into their frilly shirts, the return of Oasis is, surprisingly, a breath of fresh air.

'Dirty, crashing guitars'

"Littered with potential A sides"

You realise just what's been missing as soon as Acquiesce revs up and roars out of the speakers on a wave of dirty, crashing guitars - with a faded segment of Morning Glory attached to each end.

This is Oasis at their rocking best, with Noel taking over from 'our kid' on the chorus, because he allegedly couldn't reach the high notes. Bless him!

Underneath The Sky, with its understated Smiths-like riff and 60s harmonies, ambles along without a care in the world and you're more than happy to go with the flow, while Rockin' Chair sees Liam at his brilliant best. "I've had enough of being alone" he poignantly cries, evoking such emotion that you wonder why the throwaway Roll With It was chosen as the A-side.

In fact this is a record that is, ironically, littered with potential A-sides. Unlike many of their contemporaries who opt for half-a-dozen re-mixes of the same song, Oasis actually make an effort to make sure their flips aren't flops, and it shows.

Better than Be Here Now

"Noel lets himself down by rhyming car with jag-u-ar"

Embarrassingly - for them - it's actually better than Be Here Now, but then all the songs bar two were written before 1997, which doesn't bode well for the future.

Going Nowhere is by far the oldest, written in 1990 before the band were signed. Noel adds the role of prophet to his impressive CV, with the forecast "I'm going to be a millionaire", but lets himself down by rhyming "car" with "jag-u-ar". Come on, mate, Madness were doing that in the days when Manchester City didn't include directions to Wycombe with their annual fixture list.

Fade Away lies somewhere between the Pistols and The Smiths, with Liam snarling over the top and Listen Up appears to be a pseudonym for Live Forever, until the guitars kick in.

'Epic climax'

As the album heads towards the epic climax of the title track, you're treated to a hand-clapping anthem (Stay Young) and a reverberating rock'n'roll track evocative of The Faces and the Stones (Headshrinker), but the real ace in a star-studded pack is the beautiful Half The World Away - better known as the theme tune to The Royle Family.

Ardent Oasis fans will, of course, already own all these tracks, but it's amazing how well they flow together - almost as if they were destined to be played on 33.

The Masterplan appears to have worked - the blueprints must be worth a fortune.