How many special people change?
25 years on, this album is an essential item.
Amidst a global pandemic and the confusion and sadness that surrounds it, Oasis’ (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, turned 25 years old, earlier this month.
It’s been over a decade since the band split, and since then, it’s suffice to put the brothers Gallagher’s relationship, unsurprisingly, has been far from friendly with Liam using Twitter as a platform to voice his disdain at his brother’s solo career and indeed, anything else Noel related. Noel, in turn has used the media to respond accordingly as the “war by media” has raged on.
But this is not an article about the brothers relationship, or lack of it. This is an article celebrating how good this album was, and thankfully is. It’s also been a breath of fresh air for someone like myself, who didn’t appreciate how good it is.
We start the album with “Hello” and Liam’s words of introduction “I don’t feel as if I know you, you take up all my time”. This is Oasis at their swaggering best, and we pick up where we left off their seismic debut in “Definitely Maybe”.
The second song happens to be, unashamedly, one of my favourite songs the band released, “Roll With It”. The upbeat vibe post “Hello” continues, with both Gallagher’s in perfect harmony, and Noel’s harmonies supporting his younger brothers powerful vocals. As Liam sings “I think about a feeling I’ve lost inside”, Noel echoes “Take me away” in the distance.
Melancholic lyrics but bizarrely, such an uplifting song and just two track in, we have an idea of how prolific Noel had been as a songwriter at this point. We are greeted, rather worryingly in these times, by a cough before the third song begins. You may have heard of it. It’s called “Wonderwall”.
Dear listener, I’m almost certain that you would have heard this song many times in various wedding parties and pub gigs that you would have been to. From time to time, you’ll love this song, and then you’ll loathe it. I have experienced both emotions, but there’s no doubt, it’s a beautiful song and Oasis’ biggest song of all time.
“Don’t Look Back In Anger” with a nod to John Lennon’s “Imagine”, is another you would have heard frequently down the years, but yet like “Wonderwall” remains another song, for the masses. We’ve covered the strengths of Noel and Liam so far, but it’s the rhythm section that come to fore here, with Bonehead, Guigsy and newly recruited Alan White on drums, powerful as a unit, being a perfect equal to Noel’s rallying lead vocal.
Whilst “we have our life in the hands, of a rock and a roll band”, we arrive at “Hey Now” with Noel’s lyrics in reflective mood, fiercely delivered by Liam with the words “I took a walk with my fame, down memory lane, I never did find my way back”. It’s a moment to look back as the band’s world had been turned upside down within months, but also look forward.
“The Swamp Song” is a 45 second jam. By the time it fades, the opening chords of “Some Might Say” begin to play and it’s the final time that drummer Tony McCarroll would drum on a Oasis song. McCarroll, sadly overlooked in the band’s story largely until the release of “Supersonic” and Bonehead’s Twitter Listening Parties during lockdown this year, does a fine job.
If somebody asked me to define Oasis in a song, it would be this one. Loud, a thumping chorus and lyrics that are life affirming. Once again, both brothers in perfect harmony and on perfect form, Noel in his prolific peak as a songwriter and Liam likewise with his vocals.
It’s time to slow it down a little, and“Cast No Shadow” sounds as if it could have been released yesterday. It’s fresh and relevant. It had been a joy to see Liam bring the song back to life with Bonehead joining him on stage to as he finally made his MTV Unplugged debut in Hull in August 2019.
The tempo lifts with the cheeky nod and a wink in the shape of “She’s Electric” optimized by the lyrics “She’s got a brother/ We don’t get on with one another/
But I quite fancy her mother/
And I think that she likes me”. A suggestive, feel-good song, guaranteed to lift your mood.
Unbelievably, like “Some Might Say”, the title track “Morning Glory” arrives late on in the album, but it’s worth the wait. This is Oasis channeling The Sex Pistols and delivering an astonishing wall of noise, with the rhythm section in on outstanding form as Liam’s voice at that point, remained on another level. A great song, which sounds even better live.
With 39 seconds of “The Swamp Song — Version 2” playing out, we are on the album closer, “Champagne Supernova” and lyrically, despite being potentially nonsensical, on times, this is another of Noel’s finest moments. “Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball”. Anyone?
No matter, this is yet another anthem from a band in, who had reached the highest highs, and upon listening to this, it’s proved how good this album was, and still is from a band, while remaining so important to different generations across the world.
If you need an essential item today, this is the one for you.
