DEFINITELY MAYBE - 14

UK Top 20 peak: Number 1

Estimated sales: 1.8m [UK], 3.6m [worldwide]

Oasis' mainman and songwriting force Noel Gallagher said of the band's debut album that "the only crierion for DM was to make it sound like [The Sex Pistols'] 'Never Mind The Bollocks' and [Nirvana's] 'Nevermind'". Oasis indeed achieved a compulsive synthesis: merging the Pistols' fearless rock'n'roll onslaught wqith heaps of unstoppable tunes, a la Cobain and co; "Live Forever", "Cigarettes & Alcohol", "Slide Away" and "Rock'n'Roll Star" being among the very best. Liam's whine, equal parts John Lennon asnd John Lydon, Noel's heart-on-the-sleeve lyrical directness and the band's full on guitar attack became the iconic noise of the era. What an almighty racket it is. Still.

BE HERE NOW - 13

UK Top 20 peak: Number 1

Estimated sales: 1.5m [UK], 5.6m [worldwide]

Cum on feel the noize, eh? Co-producer Owen Morris and Oasis took the same essential sound that served them so well on WTSMG? but inflated it to twice it's normal size. As promised by the curtain-raising single "D'You Know What I Mean?", these were songs of a grand stature, matched by a great largeness of heart. Noel again excelled at those massed-guitar morale boosters. Meanwhile, lyrically, he sidestepped widescreen sloganeering to ruminate on his secretive soul ["Stand By Me"] and write heartfelt songs of love to his wife ["The Girl In The Dirty Shirt"] and his mother ["Don't Go Away"], sung with passionate empathy by brother Liam.

(WHAT'S THE STORY) MORNING GLORY? - 8

UK Top 20 peak: Number 1

Estimated sales: 4.1m [UK], 12m [worldwide]

Stop anyone under 30 on the street and the chances are, with minimal prompting, they could whistle, la-la and punch the air through WTSMG? It's upward commercial trajectory for a year and more after its release traced the constantly widening discovery of its qualities long after the hyped Oasis vs Blur rivalry had run its course. Oais's solid sales only took wing for the stratosphere after they'd proved the songs in live performance. Then, in December 1995, "Wonderwall" scored a huge radio hit, freakishly covered on the spot by MOR prankster Mike Flowers Pops. Now the songs spoke.

Oddly enough, WTSMG? begins with a track, "Hello", that plods before slipping into the Gary Glitter-style chorus of "it's good to be back". But after that row upon row of rockers assert Oasis's extraordinary power of propulsive momentum at sub-frantic tempos. All hail here to self-effacing rhythm kings Bonehead, Guigsy and the debutante Alan White.

"Roll With It", "Hey Now!", "Some Might Say" and even the knees-up "She's Electric" grow remorselessly less resistible at every sitting. Then the fierce "Morning Glory" with its shrieking guitar textures and the ecstatic "Champagne Supernova" top the lot. "Caught beneath a landslide/In a champagne supernova in the sky". But, of course. As Noel observed, "alright, it doesn't mean anything, but when you're stood in front of 20,000 people who sing every word...I don't know what it means, but ask them. I'm just 'bound with all the words I've tried to say'."

He was partly quoting "Cast No Shadow", another of the record's highlights, reflecting on the difficulties of self-expression - not just for a man who grew up concreting floors rather than studying literature - and a sense of life so thin that any individual may leave nothing behind, may "cast a shadow".

"Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back In Anger" complete a trio of slower songs showing how much Oasis had extended their scope since DM. In particular, the ofteh oafish and always enigmatic Liam sang them with a plain, headbutting seriousness which rendered redundant queries about whether writer brother and vocalist brother understood one another with regard to fine points of meaning and interpretation.

WTSMG? placed the rampant, unexplained spirit of the Gallaghers and Oasis at the heart of the nation in the '90s.

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c 1998 Andrew Turner

aturner@interalpha.co.uk

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