Review Summary: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? is Oasis' best album as it provides 12 of their most famous tracks that are as wild and as turbulent as the bands internal relationships were.
Dysfunction and Rock n’ Roll tends to go hand in hand. Granted there are many bands in the history of rock who have maintained civil relationships internally, but the better percentage of them have had such contentious relationships with each other to the point that they seem to constantly be on the verge of implosion. There are not many bands, if any, that exemplify this better than Oasis. The Britpop quintet from Manchester had a famously tumultuous relationship with each other, due mainly to the Gallagher brothers, Liam and Noel, who were the faces of the band. The polarizing sibling duo consistently made headlines for their backstage fights, partying and their acerbic attitude towards the media, which made them extremely entertaining even outside of music. Basically they were the epitome of a dysfunctional Rock ‘N Roll band. But as we have often seen, just because a band is dysfunctional, does not necessarily mean they are unable to create great music. Oasis more than proved this to be true in 1995 with their second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, an album that bridged classic rock with sheer raucousness, and produced some of the best Britpop hits of its era.
A little over a year before Morning Glory’s release, Oasis introduced themselves to the world with Definitely Maybe, their debut effort that garnered the band a lot of well deserved attention. They also were involved in a well publicized rivalry with fellow up-and-coming Brit-rockers, Blur. Oasis’ sophomore effort was going to be their chance to answer the call and show the world just how legit they really were. Morning Glory has almost everything you could ask for in a rock album with catchy, uplifting, energetic tracks along with more somber and darker ones as well. The tracks “Some Might Say” and “She Is Electric” are two of the easiest songs to like upon first listen as they contain great sing along hooks. In the albums opener “Hello”, Liam bellows “I don't feel as if I know you/You take up all my time/The days are long and the night will throw you away/Coz the sun don't shine/Nobody ever mentions the weather can make or break your day/Nobody ever seems to remember life is a game we play.” The lyrics have an eagerness to them that show just how badly Oasis wanted to be the biggest band in the world on not just this song, but many others such as the aforementioned “Some Might Say” as Liam sings “Some might say you get what you've been given/If you don't get yours I won't get mine as well /Some might say we will find a brighter day/Some might say we will find a brighter day /Cos I've been standing at the station/In need of education in the rain/You made no preparation/For my reputation once again.” Many bands say they want to be the biggest band in the world, but Oasis REALLY said it on this record.
Along with its poppy upbeat songs, Morning Glory also has some melancholic and volatile moments as well. One of the more reflective moments comes on a tribute to their friend Richard Ashcroft from the band The Verve with “Cast No Shadow,” as it has a more sorrowful sound than the rest of the album. The darkest and one of the truly finest moments on the record comes towards the end of the album with “Morning Glory,” on which the band describes the darker part of their newfound rock star lifestyles: “All your dreams are made/When you're chained to the mirror and the razor blade/Today's the day that all the world will see/Another sunny afternoon/Walking to the sound of my favorite tune/Tomorrow never knows what it doesn't know too soon.” Of course, it is impossible to discuss this album without mentioning its two most famous tracks, “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger.” Wonderwall is perhaps Oasis’ most well known song in their entire catalog, as it is a truly powerful acoustic love ballad that shows a softer side of the band behind their famously rough, working-class exterior. Generation X and millennials everywhere continue to embrace this song as one of their favorites making it possibly the anthem of Britpop. “Don’t Look Back In Anger” is a more refined Beatles-influenced song with a strong piano riff and is the only track on the album that features Noel as the singer as he offers a lower, clearer voice than Liam’s. The record also contains a great closer with “Champagne Supernova,” which is also the albums longest track, clocking in at over seven minutes. The song starts off with a slow and blissful acoustic riff and has a great build up into a soaring and euphoric abyss of distortion. The lyrics and the tone of this song seem very reminiscent and nostalgic, almost suggesting that Oasis knows that they have just completed the finest work of their career and may never be able to produce work quite as great as these twelve tracks. That is nothing for them to fret over however, as they could have quit with this album, never released any other music, and still achieved the prominent status that they have today.
What makes Morning Glory so great above all else is how strong the choruses are with the accompanied bombastic arena rock guitar as they each mesh together perfectly to form extremely anthemic tunes. Morning Glory is often looked at as a seminal piece of the history of Britpop and as one of the better albums not just of the 90’s, but also of the last quarter century. Their Manchester counterparts and influences, The Stone Roses, were at the end of the road in terms of carrying the torch for the Manchester music scene. Oasis picked up the torch with the release of Morning Glory as the record sold at a record-breaking pace the day of its release and provided a younger generation with their own piece of history from the historic Manchester music scene. This album propelled Oasis to the face of Britpop and the coveted title as one of the biggest, if not the biggest band in the world. Unfortunately it was not for long as we would never quite see Oasis at this caliber again, however it is understandable as when you release an album of Morning glory’s stature, there is nowhere to go but down. It is certainly difficult to gain the title of biggest band in the world, but the hardest part is keeping that title. They held on to the title for a while in the mid to late 90’s, but when it came time to answer the call with 1997’s Be Here Now, the follow up to Morning Glory, Oasis just weren’t quite able to hang on to the lightning in a bottle they caught with Morning Glory, but can you really blame them?
