Why the drought is finally over for thirsty Oasis fans

Oasis shook up the music world and millions of millennials on Tuesday with the announcement of a reunion tour after a 15-year hiatus. Liam and Noel Gallagher, brothers and frontmen of the band, have a notoriously volatile relationship, swinging between a close brotherly bond and high-profile feuds in which they publicly trade barbs. The split began with a backstage fight in 2009. But the band members have decided to reunite at a time when the world desperately needs what Oasis has embodied since bursting onto the music scene three decades ago and defining the sound of Britpop.

In this digital age, which reinforces binaries, promotes reductionism, and collapses conversations, we need a band like Oasis that contains seemingly contradictory elements. The band is grimy and nihilistic (with songs like “Cigarettes and Alcohol”), but hopeful (“Live Forever,” “Wonderwall”). In some ways, it feels static, almost anachronistic, in the way it embodies ’90s Britpop. Imagine Liam Gallagher with his signature stage stance, in which he barely moves and clasps his hands behind his back. In other ways, Oasis is very dynamic. Sonically, the band’s dynamism can be heard within songs (the rich layers) and between songs (from punk-leaning rock songs to soft acoustic ballads). It is in their ability to contain contradictions that Oasis offers us some much-needed humanity, nuance, and complexity. We are not one thing. We contain ranges, paradoxes, contradictions, multitudes. This is what it means to be human.

The band’s embodiment of contradictions is best evidenced in their expressions of masculinity and gender. In many ways, the brothers, especially Liam, both represent and engender toxic masculinity: for example, when they engage in drunken physical altercations over their football shirts. Or, as noted above, when they engage in bravado-fuelled public brawls with each other and sometimes with other musicians. British pop star Robbie Williams once described the Gallaghers as “giant bullies”. The brothers, to a certain extent, are walking tropes.

Yet in many of their songs there is an aching vulnerability that spans the personal and the existential. Personal vulnerability is on display in songs like “Slide Away,” from the band’s debut album, “Definitely Maybe,” which Noel wrote in the midst of his heartbreak with ex-girlfriend Louise Jones.

There’s also “Little James,” a sweet song Liam wrote for his then-girlfriend, Patsy Kensit, and her son, James (“Sailed out to sea, your mum you and me / You swam the ocean like a child … Thank you for your smile / You make it all worthwhile to us”). Or “Talk Tonight,” one of their epic B-sides (Oasis subverted tradition by saving some of their best songs for B-sides). It’s a tender acoustic song Noel wrote when he almost left the band after one of their infamous fights in the ‘90s.

Existential vulnerability is contained in songs like “D’ You Know What I Mean?” with lyrics like, “I met my maker, I made him cry / And on my shoulder, he asked me why / His people won’t fly through the storm / I said, ‘Listen, man. They don’t even know you were born. ’” Or there’s “Live Forever”: “Maybe I just wanna fly / I wanna live, I don’t wanna die / Maybe I just wanna breathe / Maybe I don’t believe / Maybe you’re just like me / We see things they’ll never see / You and I gon’ live forever.” Or “Champagne Supernova,” which, in addition to the lyrics, captures both longing and delivery through its sonic dynamism, like the sound of waves gently lapping and crashing at the song’s opening or the epic guitar solo (another Oasis hallmark), which both reflects and enhances the mood of the lyrics.

The Gallagher brothers, with their often contentious relationship, also embody forgiveness and reconciliation. They always seem to come back to each other, even if it takes 15 years. It would be nice if we remembered that reconciliation.

Their ability to encompass such variety is what makes them so transcendent, or rather, what enhances the transcendence of their music. They remind us that, as much as culture tries to force us to accept restrictive binaries, multiple realities can exist at once.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com