157. Oasis, "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?"

 

In America, anyway, 1995 was a year dominated by hip hop and R&B.  The number one song of the year was "Gangsta's Paradise" and the next two were TLC songs.  The highest-selling single of the year that could credibly be called "rock" was Blues Traveler's "Run-Around," at number 14.

So when this album dropped, it didn't just represent pure rock making a stand, it was also a definitive win in the Britpop wars for Oasis.  They didn't just beat Blur in America; they annihilated them.  This album went to number 4 and sold 4 million plus copies.

And why not?  It is - and I do not say this mildly - a fucking blast, an incredible collection of sing-along choruses and huge guitar sounds and the snarling laddism that was Oasis' calling card.  I mean it utterly sincerely when I say this is a great fucking album.  Once again, I never owned this album, but I know every single track on it.  Some of the songs I know every word, every inflection.  And I'm not even a huge Oasis fan!

[I need to pause here for a painful personal anecdote.  I was at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2005 when Oasis was one of the headliners.  We caught part of their set - it was great, of course - but we'd been drinking Dixie beer in the 107 degree sun all day and were a little wrung out and were heading back to the hotel and we said "We can always catch them another time." Reader, there was not another time.]

There were six singles from this album, representing some of the best Britpop - or even rock - has to offer.  "Some Might Say," the first single, starts out sounding like a blues shuffle then blows up into the prototypical Oasis sound, with the layers of guitars and Liam Gallagher's snarling vocals.  This was followed by "Roll With It," and then the title track, which the Gallagher brothers have said, unsurprisingly, is about cocaine ("All your dreams are made/Now you're chained to the mirror with your razor blade").  Despite the bleak subject matter, it's got that sweeping, soaring kind of chorus that Oasis is justifiably famous for.  Whatever else you can say about them, they had the gift of writing incredible vocal melodies and then executing on them.

And then there's "Wonderwall," a song so well-known it's basically become a meme.  Not basically.

As explained by the indispensible Knowyourmeme.com, "Due to the lasting popularity and easy chord progression of the song, it has been cited as one of the most frequently covered songs in the recent history of contemporary music, while equally mocked for its cliched nature and textbook status among novice guitarists."  But really, it's a great fucking song!  I mean, you have to imagine hearing it before it became WONDERWALL.

That's not even the end!  There's the evocative and haunting "Cast No Shadow," which Noel apparently wrote about Verve singer Richard Ashcroft, and "She's Electric," which used to be my favorite song from this album to put on bar jukeboxes, and "Don't Look Back in Anger," and so on.  

I know I've been going on and on about this record, but there is one minor downside that I'm not the first to mention: the lyrics.  They are not great, and everybody kind of just accepts that and moves on.  (From She's Electric: "She's got a sister/And God only knows how I've missed her/And on the palm of her hand is a blister," the rhyming dictionary saves the day).  Luckily, they're not like, distractingly bad.  They don't yank you out of the song or anything.

Believe it or not, this album was not completely well-received when it came out!  But I think it's aged very well.  Now it looks less like aping their heroes the Beatles and more like taking that foundation and running with it.  The Manchester sound is all over this record - listen close and you can hear Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.  But in the end, it's the glorious songwriting and those choruses that stick with you forever.  

(P.S. If you think this entry was insufferable and sycophantic, just wait til the next one, you're gonna hurl.)

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Are you joking?