The way I first found out about Oasis, and the way I heard my first song of theirs, was that I was travelling to America at the end of Year 7 to visit my Dad,
and I was listening to the inflight entertainment system (probably the "Top 40 hits" channel or something), and I heard those opening chords of "Wonderwall"
– and then, all of a sudden, Liam Gallagher’s voice came in really loud (or perhaps "compressed", in recorded music terms?)!
I thought "Wow, this is a good song!", and it really made me sit up and take notice.
And as I listened to the rest of it, I thought they used the kind of chords I’d use, like when they reached the warmth of the B7 chord.
And, after I heard it for the first time, I kept waiting for the plane’s pre-recorded "Top 40" program to "loop over" so I could hear the song again!
After I heard Wonderwall, I made sure to remember Oasis when I came back from America (I did see the video clip for "Don’t Look Back in Anger" while I was there),
but I didn’t have to – when I came back, Oasis was everywhere!
1996 and 1997 passed with not much news on the Oasis front, and in January 1998 I got a copy of Oasis’ next album after
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Be Here Now,
on cassette. The person I got it from said that Noel Gallagher’s turn in the vocal spotlight, "Magic Pie", was the best song on the album, and I tended to agree!
Today, I still love Oasis. Although I’m not that familiar with a lot of their latter-day efforts (mainly 2000s stuff), I have a handful of later songs and albums of theirs which I’ve bought online,
and they still rate as one of my favourite listens, and sings!
Why I like them
Basically, my reasons for liking Oasis boil down to three key things: their really loud and distorted guitars which kind of blow you away with their sound,
Liam Gallagher’s piercing and sneering vocals, and, like the Beatles (who were a great influence on them of course!), the sheer singability of the best of their tunes.
Like all the artists I love, theirs is the music I turn to when I just need to vent stuff out!
My favourite albums of theirs
As I had mentioned, I get the impression that some of Oasis’s later albums (after Standing on the Shoulder of Giants) aren’t all that good –
I have Dig Out Your Soul, their last album (released in 2008), and there are only a handful of really good tracks on there.
But my favourite Oasis albums would probably be Definitely Maybe, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
(which is really underrated I think, a really good early-2000s album!), and The Masterplan, which is a collection of non-album tracks,
but which is also fantastic. Also, a couple of their later songs which I had bought from online music stores which I really love are "Stop Crying Your Heart Out"
and "Let There Be Love".
