Liam and Noel Gallagher have finally announced an Oasis reunion tour, 15 years after they split up due to their constant feuding. Definitely Maybe, the album that started the band, celebrates its 30th anniversary on August 29. Many music critics call it one of the best debut albums of all time. What makes it so good? I think it boils down to five core components – identification, positivity, simplicity, catchy lyrics and the perfect frontman.
1. Identifiability
Noel described Definitely Maybe as “an honest snapshot of working-class lads trying to make it”. It had no guitar effects and hardly any equipment, but made up for it with plenty of attitude, “12 cans of Red Stripe and ambition”.
Oasis seemed like five ordinary guys who had been dragged out of the pub and onto the stage. And that was a big part of their initial appeal. It felt like if they could do it, we all had a chance.
This appeal was further enhanced when fans realized that anyone with the most rudimentary drumming knowledge could learn the drum parts (Live Forever and Supersonic were my favorites, which I banged out on the battered old-school drum kit).
And while Noel’s description of his guitar playing as “average at best” is a little disingenuous, his parts were eminently playable for those who purchased the guitar tablature book Definitely Maybe.
2. Positivity
“Definitely Maybe” is a clear statement about working class values and anti-establishment ideals. But what impresses me most is the sheer positivity and joy of life.
According to Noel, it’s about the glories of being a teenager and was a reaction to the destructive and dark grunge music that was popular at the time. In fact, the album’s third single, Live Forever (voted the best British song of all time in a 2018 NME poll), was inspired by the Nirvana song I Hate Myself and Want to Die (1993).
For Noel, the song was the exact opposite of the optimism he wanted to express in his own songs. And in Live Forever, despite having “no pot to pee in,” Noel expresses his gratitude for simply being alive and being able to find beauty everywhere, even in things that might be painful.
3. Keep it simple and loud
Spin magazine once described Oasis’ sound as “dense, structured, not particularly groundbreaking rock music.” But Noel never tried to rewrite the rules with Definitely Maybe. His writing technique of taking bits from rock and roll’s past and reformatting them for a new generation provided both freshness and familiarity. This allowed him to write catchy, weighty sing-along anthems that reached as many people as possible.
In a 1994 interview with the Guardian, he said: “If you want to sell 5,000 limited edition red 7-inch vinyl records, that’s fine. Make music for a closet full of people somewhere in Bradford… but it doesn’t mean anything to anyone.”
Definitely Maybe sold 86,000 copies in its first week of release, which was probably more than enough to sell a closet full. And thanks to engineer Owen Morris, there were probably thousands more listening in the neighboring walls.
Definitely Maybe was really loud, thanks to a technique called “brick-walling” that Morris supposedly invented during the mastering process. This involved pushing the volume to the limit of what a CD could produce without distortion. This made Definitely Maybe one of the loudest records of its time, capturing the kinetic energy of Oasis’ live shows. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to my neighbors for the noise.
4. Lyrics
With its catchy melodies (Slide Away was so good that Noel reused it eight years later as Stop Crying Your Heart Out) and great sound, Definitely Maybe was well on its way to grabbing and captivating our attention. But I’d argue that the lyrics are just as important, despite their simplicity and often nonsensical content, which led Noel’s critics to dismiss them as meaningless nonsense.
For Noel, it was not important that his listeners draw a single “correct” meaning from a song, but that they draw one at all. In the spirit of the classic creative writing mantra “show, don’t tell,” in Definitely Maybe, rather than telling us how or what to think, Noel presents us with a series of images and situations that invite us to discover what they mean to us, making us active rather than passive participants in the experience.
In this way, Noel ensures that even the absurd images found in songs like Shakermaker (“I was driving in the car with my friend Mr. Soft/ Mr. Clean and Mr. Ben live in my loft”) and Digsy’s Dinner (“your friends are all going to go green for my lasagne”) become meaningful, connecting us even more closely to the album.
5. Liam
As great as the songs are, it’s unlikely that Definitely Maybe would have been anywhere near as successful with a different frontman. In Liam Gallagher, Oasis had one of the most compelling artists Britain has ever produced, someone who embodied the swagger and energy of the songs he sang.
On Definitely Maybe we see a greater variety of Liam’s singing styles than at any other point in his career. His patented grin on tracks like Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rock ‘N’ Roll Star is paired with the tenderness of Married With Children, where his voice takes on a vulnerability in the bridge section that he has never shown since.
When Noel left Oasis in 2009, he said he “couldn’t work with Liam another day”, but has since acknowledged that Oasis’ success was largely down to Liam’s singing and good looks. A rare understatement of his own importance to the group from Noel, but an even rarer acknowledgement of the role his troubled brother played in making Oasis one of the biggest bands in the world.
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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Glenn Fosbraey does not work for, consult for, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic employment.
