Friday, October 9, 2020

Day 0768 - Definitely Maybe

Oasis "Definitely Maybe" (1994)


I had a bit of a fail.  Got mixed up and listened to "(What's the Story) Morning Glory" instead (I had thought it was odd that this album would be omitted from the list).  I'll put my write up of that one aside for when it does turn up here.

Onwards and upwards though, and the things you learn.  For a band synonymous with the Gallagher brothers, neither of them was in Oasis when it first started (originally under the name the Rain).   Liam was invited to sing for the group and, after watching a show, Noel managed to convinced them to not only let him join, but to let him become sole songwriter.

The band set about recording their first album, but the first attempt was deemed a failure even after attempts to tweak the results in post-production.  The band tried again, recording in the same room as each other to give everything an 'as live' feel and then overdubbing the heck out of things.   The record company still weren't happy and eventually the recordings were handed to engineer/producer Owen Morris.  Morris was given more or less free reign and managed to shape the album into the brash piece of rawk-n-roll it is.

The album is a lot less poppy than the band's later offerings, though "Live Forever" and slightly out-of-place acoustic closer "Married With Children" provide a bit of melody.   There's a lot of the standard rock recipe of excesses here with the band even going so far as to title one track "Alcohol and Cigarettes".   Liam kind of goes overboard with nasally stretching out of his sung vowels.  Luckily he seemed to rope that in a bit in subsequent albums.

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