Underrated, Overrated, or Properly Rated: Oasis
A primer on all things Oasis as Listen Up kicks off
An earlier version of this piece first appeared on ’s AwkwardSD newsletter. I’ve edited and updated it for Listen Up.
In 2018, on my way home from work one day, I was transported to the passenger seat of my mom’s ‘94 Corolla: My streaming app played “Don’t Look Back In Anger.”
I had only listened to Oasis as a kid, when Philly’s WMMR and Y100 played “Champagne Supernova” once an hour. Oasis wasn’t to be actively followed. They existed as part of the cultural ether, as something unconsciously accepted, like oxygen. Nothing changed over time, except Apple charging me $10 a month for that ubiquity. The song ended and as with breathing I stopped thinking about Oasis.
A few years later, during the pandemic and amid a YouTube spiral, I watched an interview in which Deafheaven guitarist Kerry McCoy cited as an influence Oasis' debut album Definitely Maybe. I gave the album a spin and found God. Or rather Gods, since Oasis reduced to its essence is Noel and Liam Gallagher, generational talents who happen to be brothers. All I think about now is their impending reunion, as well as where in the hell in Deafheaven’s blast beats and indecipherable screaming Oasis exists.
The Nostalgia Industrial Complex today looks back at the nineties, dredging up for younger generations bucket hats, wired headphones, and music that sold an obscene amount of plastic discs. Oasis drove a lot of those CD sales, and 16 years after their breakup the band seems more popular than ever. Why else would they get back together? “Wonderwall” has been streamed over 2.2 billion times on Spotify alone, and in 2022 Noel claimed that Oasis sells as many albums as they did in their prime. True or not, facts never stopped the Gallaghers from proclaiming their dominance.
But does omnipresence equate to quality? They were one of the biggest bands in the world. Were they one of the best? Or are they an overplayed artifact? With Noel and Liam (apparently) making amends, it’s important that the world receives an objective determination on whether Oasis is actually good or not. In the spirit of the Gallaghers, I am the only person for the job.
Studio Albums
Definitely Maybe
Definitely Maybe demarcates the end of the grunge era in popular music, and overnight it turned Noel the songwriter and Liam the frontman into icons. They knew their destiny. The first track is called “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” though the album’s strength could rest solely on “Live Forever,” a song that, according to one restrained review, possesses a melody that “could wake the Pharaohs.” The album resonates decades later in part because of that optimism. Of course we’re going to be stars and live forever.
That ethos can be cloying, juvenile, even. A track off Council Skies, Noel’s latest solo album, contains the lyric, “Don’t stop being happy / Don’t stop your clapping / Don’t stop your laughing.” It can also be swaggering and vulnerable and huge and sweet and original and universal, which it is on Definitely Maybe.
During my youth, their unapologetic embrace of life and self went over my head. During Covid, it was a call to arms. I wanted to deem the album underrated, if only because it rewired my brain back toward positivity and “Slide Away” is the most overlooked love song in pop music, but Definitely Maybe is widely and correctly considered one of the best debut albums ever. PROPERLY RATED.
(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
Reflecting on (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? at its twenty-fifth anniversary, Noel rattled off eight B-sides he wrote—more on them later—that “were good enough to launch any band’s career.” The roster reflects Noel’s songwriting peak, which is one of the great runs in pop culture history. (Tom Hanks’ filmography from 1992-2002 is the GOAT.)
While it was released to mixed reviews, Morning Glory became a phenomenon because the songs written around that time feel like they were created in the Big Bang and Noel was the mortal able to conjure them from the cosmos. “Some Might Say” is about God knows what, but I feel the opening riff in every cell of my body and so did the millions of people who made it Oasis’ first No. 1 hit.
Noel is the most arrogant artist I follow and even he’s at a loss to explain the album. Stammering about “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” he said, “That song is mad. It’s fucking mad. I don’t even… why? Who knows.” There is no liking or disliking the songs of the Morning Glory era. They just are. This album is one of the best-selling and best ever because it just is. PROPERLY RATED.
Be Here Now
I don’t care about Be Here Now being Oasis’ cocaine album. I don’t care about Noel writing much of it while partying with Mick Jagger, Johnny Depp, and Kate Moss on a private island in the Caribbean. I don’t care about the album’s overproduction, length, and indulgence. And I don’t care about it leading to the dissolution of the band’s classic lineup.
I like indie music as much as the next politically liberal middle-class white guy, but in a world where The National is basically an arena act, I feel more than ever we need dozens of guitar tracks overdubbed onto a single song like on “My Big Mouth.” We need more “Hey Jude”-like singalongs like “All Around The World.” We need more perfectly structured, perfectly executed, and perfectly fine power ballads like “Stand By Me.”
Like Kerri Strug, Oasis went for it all and stuck the landing, albeit painfully and barely intact. If Be Here Now isn’t Oasis at its best, then its Oasis at its most. It’s Oasis on, well, cocaine. Drugs are mostly bad, kids—what a mess “Magic Pie” is—but life is great, mostly. So is this album, mostly. UNDERRATED.
Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
The Stones Roses, Noel and Liam’s idols and fellow Mancunians, released their eponymous debut album in 1989, and despite never again harnessing that greatness they became cult legends, a band’s band. Knowing about and liking The Stone Roses makes you cool. Oasis would have attained similar, if heightened status had they disbanded in February 2000 after releasing Standing on the Shoulder of Giants. (That’s just one shoulder, by the way. Quite balletic they are.)
Their four-album catalog to this point, one short of music critic Steven Hyden’s five-albums test, forms a tragic narrative arc. After exploding onto the scene, reaching the mountain top, then flying too close to the sun, Oasis felt the wounds of fame, exhaustion, and decline. It’s the first time Noel let doubt and insecurity enter their music, making Giants their most self-aware album. In my alternate universe, that contributes to the band’s critical reputation. They had something to say, said it, then knew when to leave. More than it does now, the album would have bookended the nineties and its Britpop movement. It would have been a prescient look at the cynicism and distrust endemic to the new millennium.
In the real world, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants is Oasis’ first album that wasn’t culturally relevant and true believers like me scream into the void, “It’s better than you remember!” UNDERRATED.
Heathen Chemistry
Drunk in the studio recording Oasis’ fifth album, Noel put on the Abbey Road medley for inspiration. He reached “The End” and was reminded of its greatness. Strumming along with the track, Noel tweaked the guitar parts and then constructed his own song around them. This is how “Hung In A Bad Place,” Heathen Chemistry’s third track, was born.
Just kidding. I made that up, but there must be no other explanation since Heathen Chemistry is a veritable (and horribly named) covers album. “The Hindu Times” steals from Stereophonics’ “Same Size Feet.” “Better Man” is a repackaged version of “Love Spreads” by The Stones Roses. I had to check that “She Is Love” wasn’t a Counting Crows track, and “Born On A Different Cloud” is yet another corpse in the graveyard of “Across The Universe” wannabes, although, the middle third of the album—”Stop Crying Your Heart Out,” “Songbird,” and “Little By Little”—might be the greatest moment for the band in the 2000s. The songs not named here are to protect the innocent.
Noel had always borrowed liberally from other artists, but by 2002 he was out of ideas and had basically stopped trying. Heathen Chemistry is the first Oasis album that awarded songwriting credits to anyone not named Gallagher. Good team effort, but this album is not good. Somehow, Blender gave it a decent review upon its release. OVERRATED.
Don’t Believe the Truth
(What’s The Story) Morning Glory? has sold 22 million copies, behind only Mariah Carey’s Daydream and Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill among albums released in 1995. On the charts and in the tabloids, Oasis was dominating Blur in the Battle of Britpop.
A decade later, Don’t Believe the Truth became the 99th-best selling album of 2005 and Blur frontman Damon Albarn could declare victory. His other band, Gorillaz, dropped a top-ten album in Demon Days, and its lead single “Feel Good Inc.” was everywhere that year. But arguably the most potent force in music was Kanye West, who released the seminal Late Registration, then made Mike Myers’ eyes fall out of his head at a Hurricane Katrina relief event.
Outside of their core fanbase in the U.K., Oasis’ new music basically didn’t exist. As Kanye was releasing “Gold Digger,” Oasis was releasing “Let There Be Love,” which is “All You Need Is Love” drained of charm and energy. Oasis’ sound and bravado meant nothing to the American mainstream and that irrelevance defied consensus, even among critics in a single city. Chicago’s Pitchfork skewered it. The A.V. Club called it a comeback. The truth, ahem, is somewhere in the middle. PROPERLY RATED.
Dig Out Your Soul
Noel once said that, had their discography occurred in reverse, their latter albums would be looked at as stepping stones to greatness rather than comedowns by has-beens. As with all things, I look to Bruce Springsteen for guidance.
Are Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle better in light of Born To Run? Certainly. But are Greetings and the E Street Shuffle better than Oasis’ last two albums? By a mile. Springsteen knew he needed a breakthrough with his third album or he’d be back to the club circuit down the shore. If Oasis’ make-or-break third album was Heathen Chemistry, then there would have been no Morning Glory or Definitely Maybe. Noel’s is a fun thought experiment, but to paraphrase the U.S. Supreme Court, greatness is like porn. You know it when you see it, and Oasis’ albums didn’t have it in the 2000s.
In any event, Noel must have been thinking of Dig Out Your Soul as a debut. The performances are engaged, the music is purposeful (at least through the first seven tracks), and the production is the best since their prime. It feels like the first time in years Oasis had cared, which I think stems from Noel knowing he was going to leave the band after this album. If Oasis put this much effort into previous records, then thought experiments wouldn’t be needed to salvage their reputation. UNDERRATED.
Singles, B-sides, Non-Album Tracks, and Outtakes
If Oasis mostly sucked at albums, then they were among the best at songs. Starting at No. 40, every entry in Steven Hyden’s ranking of Oasis songs is popular, great, or both, and his top-15 includes one classic after another. Even three Heathen Chemistry tracks make the list! I usually resent bands whose best product is their greatest hits or, now, their Essentials playlist. For Oasis, it’s their raison d'être. “Lyla” rocks and it was a No. 1 single in the U.K., but it exists on an album I rarely return to.
It’s frustrating Oasis buried some of their best songs on single releases, leaving at least one more great album on the table. The Masterplan, a post hoc compilation of B-sides, is their third-best “album.” But singles and associated B-sides are what prevented them from being a weightless fad, as their releases throughout the nineties contained hidden gems that rewarded a dedicated fan base. I hope to one day feel in the streaming era what Gen X must have felt when they bought the “Some Might Say” single and unexpectedly had their face melt off their head by “Acquisese,” “Headshrinker,” and “Talk Tonight.” (At the same time, Oasis’ “shuffle-ability” is probably contributing to their resurgent popularity.)
Oasis’ non-album tracks also include an interview with the Gallaghers recorded in April 1994. The band had just been deported from the Netherlands for starting fights on the ferry over, disrupting plans for some of their first overseas shows, and to an NME reporter Noel and Liam argued whether artistry or attitude is more important. Taped before they had officially released any music, the recording reveals that the Gallaghers’ combative relationship was not a symptom of success or jealousy. It was the foundation of the entire operation. It was the fuel that powered the rocket ship: The back-and-forth charted in 1995 after it was released as a single. For a few minutes at a time, Oasis is the most undeniable band that’s ever existed. PROPERLY RATED.
Live albums & recordings
As with any popular band, Oasis’ live performances, officially released or otherwise, are discussed ad nauseam on the internet. Unlike with other bands, the discussion isn’t centered around setlist choices and song variations. It’s about whether Liam has a voice and if Noel cares.
In some live recordings, Liam proves why he was not only one of the best frontmen of his generation, but also one of its best singers. The people need GMEX 1997 officially released! In others, he sounds like an out-of-breath wood chipper, although official releases hide this version. For his part, Noel on stage oscillated between unrepentantly gleeful and utterly dour. I’ll leave it to you to figure out when he quit cocaine.
It seemed you could never know which Oasis would show up, if they showed up at all. Liam infamously skipped out on their MTV Unplugged performance at a time when MTV Unplugged meant something, and he would often leave the stage mid-concert due to vocal problems or indifference. They submitted several legendary concerts, including the 1996 Knebworth shows, but too many recordings are hard to watch or listen to. OVERRATED.
Live experience
My entire net worth is tied up in tickets to the reunion tour. I will let you know this summer if this investment returns dividends. TBD.
Music videos
Music can sound and feel timeless, as if it could have been made fifty years ago or yesterday. Music videos almost always are dated and cheesy. Oasis did not break that mold, and Noel hilariously disparaged Oasis’ videos. They’re insightful, though, in that they reflect a world pre- and post-9/11, pre- and post-HD, and pre- and post-cellphones. The band stood for nothing except having a good time, which makes it easy to see into them whatever we want. UNDERRATED.
Art and iconography
Oasis’ album and singles art went from classic to whatever Heathen Chemistry’s is. I’m not saying their switch from an iconic brand identity to a more modern one is what caused their irrelevance in the 2000s, but I’m not not saying that. UNDERRATED.
Noel Gallagher’s solo career
I watched Noel perform a soulless and abbreviated opening set for a band called Garbage at a half-empty amphitheater. He had strained his voice earlier that day cheering on his beloved Manchester City Football Club in the Champions League final. At this point, not even Noel Gallager is interested in Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. PROPERLY RATED.
Liam Gallagher’s solo career
For someone who attributes his interest in music to being beaten with a hammer, Liam has put together a cogent and successful solo career. He has committed to a singing style and touring pace that (mostly) preserve his voice, and he’s unpretentious about his new albums. It’s just rock and roll, excuses to sing Oasis songs to people. Coincidentally or not, he’s the Gallagher still headlining festivals and selling out arenas. In the decades-long debate between artistry and attitude, we might have a winner. UNDERRATED.
Final verdict
In the documentary Oasis: Supersonic, erstwhile rhythm guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs said, “[After Knebworth] I honestly think we should have just went, ‘Thank you, every one of youse, for getting us here. We were Oasis, and good night,’ and walked off. We should have… disappeared into a puff of smoke.” It’s a sentiment that aligns with Noel’s fears, that Oasis was a band whose moment ended in 1996.
I do think they would have a better critical reputation in the U.S. had they called it quits sooner, or had better managed their output in the 2000s, but even their latter albums had two or three songs that other bands would kill to write. Oasis was a singles band, after all. Noel wrote the tunes. Liam brought the best ones to life. Some of their contemporaries put out albums considered among the best ever. Radiohead’s discography, for example, is spoken about in the reverent whispers of an art museum. But when aliens discover our planet, touch down on our scorched remains, and wipe away the dust, they’ll find a mummy clutching a Discman, and in it will be Morning Glory. UNDERRATED.