Oasis

Definitely Maybe

Were they the messiah?

Review Score:

(10/10)
When I first saw Oasis spit out Supersonic on The Word, my heart missed several beats - I thought they were the Stone Roses come back to haunt me. But while they may have borrowed their urchin chic from their Mancunian predecessors, their sound was more Stones than Roses. Liam's stage persona may have borrowed heavily from Ian Brown, but emanated a different sort of cool - a sneering delivery and barely a shuffle of the feet which many have emulated but never to quite the same effect. Noel's lyrics may often be poor imitations of nursery rhymes, but the feeling imparted to them by his brother, fused to the massive sound blasted out by the rest of the band (and really Bonehead is the driving force, surprising as it may seem, with his rhythm guitar belting out a shudderingly aggressive wall of sound) transcends the limitations of Noel's lyric writing ability. That he can write a tune, however, is not in doubt. There are monsters on this album, from the T-Rex on steroids of Cigarettes and Alcohol, through the uplifting, anthemic Live Forever to the soaring, intense beauty of Slide Away. Definitely Maybe is a pearl, better than Morning Glory for it's raw aggression, uncomplicated yet brilliantly infectious tunes and it's sheer, unbridled lust for life. While hailing The Stone Roses as John the Baptists to Oasis' messiahs is plain ridiculous (The Stone Roses were and always will be the better band), Oasis took the blueprint left to them and mangled the face of the British music industry, shifting twenty million units in the process. That they never quite lived up to the potential shown on their debut is well known (how many band's greatest achievement is their first these days?), but for giving us Definitely Maybe, one of the defining records of the decade, we should be truly thankful. Amen.

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