(What's The Story) Morning Glory? Chicago IL

(What's The Story) Morning Glory?

Oasis

Epic Records, 1995

REVIEW BY: Sean McCarthy

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/19/2004

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.