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Last Active 04-29-20 1:18 pm
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| Definitely Maybe v What's The Story Morning Glory
Oasis' dual magnum opuses go up against each other in a battle to the last. Will indie cred win out over commercial success, or will the almighty dollar triumph in the end? Read on and find out!
NOTE: For convenience, the two Untitled snippets on Morning Glory were treated as a single song on this list. | | 1 | Oasis
Rock'n'Roll Star / Hello
Round 1 is a no-brainer, as a bona-fide Oasis hit goes up against a pleasant enough track which stood no chance of ever being anything but album filler. Manic energy and a youthfully defiant attitude give Definitely Maybe the early lead.
WINNER: Definitely Maybe
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 1 - 0 Morning Glory | | 2 | Shakermaker / Roll With It
Morning Glory recovers from the early upset with class, to deliver an instantly memorable, instantly appealing track, which could perfectly well have been a bigger hit for the band. Definitely Maybe tries to counter this with an actual single, but the surprisingly chorusless nature of the affair lets it down, allowing Morning Glory to tie the score.
WINNER: Morning Glory
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 1 - 1 Morning Glory | | 3 | Live Forever / Wonderwall
After each taking a round with relative ease, the two albums come to a deadlock stalemate in Round 3. Definitely Maybe leads in with Oasis' first real breakthrough hit, a track which offsets relatively muted instrumentation with Liam Gallagher at his snarliest, giving the whole track an air of knowing irony that fits in perfectly with the band's snotty attitude. Opposite it, however, is...well, Wonderwall. THE Oasis track. Arguably the most popular and best known track in Britpop history. Yes, it's overplayed. Yes, it's overly simplistic in structure and themes. But it's WONDERWALL. Cultural significance alone denies Definitely Maybe what would perhaps have been a well-deserved win, bringing about the first deadlock in this contest.
WINNER: Draw
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 2 - 2 Morning Glory | | 4 | Up In The Sky / Don't Look Back In Anger
And after a stalemate comes the next best thing, as a fan-favourite cut goes up against a massive international hit and holds its own admirably. Up In The Sky is lively, vibrant, energetic and - like most of the tracks around it - imbued with just the right amount of bratty, laddish attitude. Unlike Live Forever, however, it lacks the success factor which would have allowed it to even the score against the OTHER massive hit Oasis are known for. As it is, Don't Look Back In Anger - a banger of a track in its own right - snatches a win from under Sky's nose on name recognition alone, to give Morning Glory the lead for the first time in this contest.
WINNER: Morning Glory
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 2 - 3 Morning Glory | | 5 | Columbia / Hey Now
Track 5 brings the first dip in quality for both albums – though it is particularly egregious on Definitely Maybe, bringing the hot streak the album had been building thus far to a screeching halt. Not that Columbia is a bad song – it's pleasant enough in its own way – but it cannot possibly hold a candle to anything that came before it. Very much the same applies to its Morning Glory counterpart, though to a lesser extent – as, while Columbia has the better verses, Hey Now has far and away the better chorus. Still, the two songs do just enough to cancel each other out, causing Round 5 to finish the same way Round 3 did – in a technical draw.
WINNER: Draw
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 3 - 4 Morning Glory | | 6 | Supersonic / Some Might Say
Fortunately, Round 6 picks up the quality once again after a duffer Round 5, and turns out to be more of a rap battle than a fisticuff fight, as two of Oasis' best sets of lyrics go up against one another. Both Supersonic and Some Might Say are awash with top-notch lines, with Supersonic's zingers about The Big Issue and Alka-Seltzer proving more than a match for Some Might Say's men who cannot shine and live in Hell. The inevitable result is - yes - yet another stalemate, proving just how little there is to choose between the Gallagher brothers' two masterpieces.
WINNER: Draw
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 4 - 5 Morning Glory | | 7 | Bring It On Down / Cast No Shadow
After so many close calls, finally, a clear-cut decision, as a pedestrian, chorusless and instantly forgettable album track goes up against an intriguing, hippy-trippy and instantly memorable fan-favourite album track. The result is the most uneven bout since Round 1, which sees Morning Glory nutmeg past its younger brother and dribble away towards goal.
WINNER: Morning Glory
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 4 - 6 Morning Glory | | 8 | Cigarettes & Alcohol / She's Electric
Another battle of the opposites on Round 8, as perhaps the heaviest riff in Oasis' career (weren't they supposed to be a pop band?) goes up against three and a half minutes of cheeky, Beatlesque guitar-pop (weren't they supposed to be a rock band?) Ultimately, however - and despite the difference in approach between the two songs - the result is an increasingly predictable technical draw, as each song does just enough to cancel the other one out, bringing any decision down to personal preference (which, in this case, would have gone towards Electric.) An unbiased judge, however, has no choice but to once again call a no-contest, proving there is still enough gas left in Definitely's tank to potentially pull an upset.
WINNER: Draw
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 5 - 7 Morning Glory | | 9 | Digsy's Dinner / Morning Glory
And yet again, after a close-fought stalemate comes a no-brainer of a round. Name these two songs to any but the most die-hard of Oasis fans, and they will likely react with a 'Huh?' to the former, while simultaneously launching into the chorus for the latter. That fact alone says it all about each song's cultural relevance and staying power - and about why Round 9 is such an easy one to call.
WINNER: Morning Glory
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 5 - 8 Morning Glory | | 10 | Slide Away / Untitled (Parts 1 and 2)
And speaking of easy rounds, here's a real song (and a really good one, at that) going up against all of 90 seconds of country-inspired noodling. Round 10 in this fight is the musical equivalent of letting your little brother catch up in a race, to make the result more even. The biggest no-brainer of the lot.
WINNER: Definitely Maybe
SCORE: Definitely Maybe 6 – 8 Morning Glory | | 11 | Married With Children / Champagne Supernova
And so this bout comes to its last round - and what a heartbreaking finale it makes for. Married With Children is a really, really good song, a tongue-in-cheek all-acoustic ditty which might have been a sleeper hit for the band; opposite it, however, is arguably the best song out of BOTH these albums, a near-perfect concoction made of equal parts melancholy, hopefulness and defiance, the whole topped with a typically rollicking Noel Gallagher guitar solo. Morning Glory may have let its brother catch up on the previous round, but it still breaks away on the final stretch, leaving a tearful Definitely Maybe in its wake. Still, at the end of their VERY close-fought brawl, both albums can walk tall in the knowledge that any contest between them is an 'any given night' scenario, and that each of them fully deserves their status as a shining beacon of the Britpop movement.
WINNER: Morning Glory
FINAL SCORE: Definitely Maybe 6 - 9 Morning Glory
OVERALL WINNER: What's The Story Morning Glory | |
ReturnToRock
06.10.20 | THERE! Fourth time's the bloody charm!
(FYI I had to publish this with only 5 items and then edit the rest in one by one, because making a list with 11 items was causing Sputnik to glitch, not recognise me as a real user, and not publish or even save my list. I had to write this bitch THREE TIMES from scratch - and then a fourth where I copy-pasted it all in from a word processor! AAAARGH!!!) | Dwap
06.11.20 | I enjoyed reading this and mostly agree with your decisions. Cigarettes & Alcohol is a clear winner against She's Electric though. | Trebor.
06.11.20 | both shite | aydross121
06.11.20 | bot chit |
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