Published on Aug 19, 2004
Definitely Maybe was one of the greatest debut albums of
all-time. Each song marked the arrival of a bunch of cocky,
Beatles-worshipping, coked-up Brits. The album’s excess (an obvious
reflection of the band’s) was the
License to Ill of Brit-pop. If
Definitely Maybe was the party,
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is the hangover. While
Definitely Maybe was bragging about becoming rock and roll
stars and doing white lines,
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? sounds like someone who is
coping with the morning after who heard it from another person that
they were a total ass the night before: “did I say that?”, “Was I
that obnoxious?”
Luckily, the band doesn’t lose any confidence on their sophomore
effort. Their Beatles’ worship definitely leans toward later-era
Beatles with this album, especially with mega-production numbers
like “Cast No Shadow”, “Wonderwall” and of course, the epic
“Champagne Supernova.” Where
Definitely Maybe rocked,
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?moves.
It’s no wonder that this was the album that gave Oasis a huge
American audience (
Definitely Maybe barely cracked the top 50); the album was a
huge hit on adult contemporary radio. The characters in
“Wonderwall” sound like more like the life-weary characters that
populate a Bonnie Raitt album: “backbeat the word is on the street
that the fire in your heart is out.” For the most part, the
wide-eyed optimism of Oasis’ debut is gone, replaced by kids who
had to grow into adulthood faster than they ever anticipated.
“Don’t Look Back in Anger” has to be both one of the most
heartbreakingly written ballads of the last 20 years and one of the
most underused karaoke songs of all time. The almost-shoegazing
“Cast No Shadow” was inspired by The Verve frontman Richard
Ashcroft. The use of strings, pulsating percussion by Alan White
and tide-wave guitar riffs by Noel Gallagher and Paul Arthurs
somehow make these songs sound heroic statements, rather than sad
bastard posturing.
There are plenty of sunny moments in
…Morning Glory. “Roll With It” was the first song that
initially got me into the band. “Hey Now!” may be a safe rocker,
but Oasis were so gifted at this time, it was still miles away from
what other rock bands were aiming for in the mid-90s. The only
blemish to this album was “She’s Electric” — a nice enough ditty,
but at the end, I was wanting to push ‘stop’ and put on
The White Album. Of course, I can’t do that — not with
“Champagne Supernova” waiting in the wings.
I can’t say enough about “Champagne Supernova”; with the
exception of “Bittersweet Symphony,” and “Paranoid Android,” it may
be the best seven minutes of rock the ’90s produced. And unlike
“Bittersweet…” and “Paranoid…”, the scope is
dramatically scaled-back. The guitar-driven dynamics definitely
make the song sound “important,” but the sad narrative deals not
with an epic life struggle or the battle between man vs. machine.
Rather, it simply details that exact moment when a person hits that
ugly transitioning pothole between being a kid and an adult.
Much like Radiohead, Oasis is defined by two back-to-back
crowning achievements. And like Radiohead, both albums perfectly
complement one another (
The Bends/
OK Computer being the obvious comparison). Unfortunately,
for Oasis,
Definitely Maybe and
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? complemented each other
too well. In so many ways,
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?sounds like a
career-capping album. At once, it’s a grand testament of the band’s
(gulp) maturity and the answer to so many doubters who dismissed
the band as Beatles’ rip-off artists. With nothing left to prove,
Oasis sadly languished after this statement.