(What's the story) Morning Glory is a bit like the brothers Gallagher, it's loud, it's brash and it's in your face at times. By no stretch of the imagination could this CD be considered back ground nor easy listening music, even if some of the tracks are rather soulful and indeed poignant at times. It's the kind of CD you bung in the car CD player, put your foot down and sing along at the top of your voice avoiding eye contact with all the other drivers as you burn them off....
Many have described Morning Glory as an energetic,confident and creative album. With Morning Glory, Oasis pulled off the notoriously difficult second album with style and panache. Given that it was only released a year after their first chart success, Morning Glory is one hell of a good album which showed that rightly Oasis were a force to be reckoned with in the so called Britpop era.
Released in 1995,with much hype and critical acclaim Morning Glory is Oasis's second album and to some, an album they have yet to be bettered. If Morning Glory is the pinnacle of Oasis's career then they have a long way to top this excellent album. Hopefully they might be able to. Morning Glory was unleashed onto the public at the height of their so called and much publicized feud with Blur. Any publicity is going to help record sales the cynical would retort. Morning Glory was co produced with Noel Gallagher and Owen Morris. All tracks were written by Noel Gallagher.
The album opens with the infamous Hello with it's sample of the Gary Glitter track, which in retrospect might not have been the greatest move to make. Hello is a raw, poppy track that drags you in kicking and screaming into the album. If you can survive listening to Hello then you'll make it to the end of this album. Opening with a very clever guitar arrangement, that fools you into thinking this is going to be a very soft track within seconds you are submersed into a rather angry sounding track. The opening bars have Noel strumming away giving you a soft rather gentle acoustic guitar sound, this is suddenly drowned out by a brash and loud electric guitar arrangement and then suddenly you get an angry sounding Liam giving it all he's got.
With a title
like Hello you could be mistaken into thinking this was going to be some nicey nice track to welcome the listener to their album, come on get real this is Oasis! With lines like "But I get the feeling you still owe me so wipe the shit of your shoe" and the lifted sample from Gary glitter this is an angry track using Hello in the context of HELLO? Who the F*** do you think you are?
Many have criticised Roll With It, released in August 1995 and reaching number 2 in the UK charts, for being a rather mediocre track with a ridiculous chorus. Roll With It, unfortunately is a rather over rated track and personally I'd not have gone out and bought the single of it and thankfully didn't basis my purchase of the album on this rather simplistic track. With a band that knows how to play it's instruments you'd have thought they'd have made proper use of their talents. Roll with it sounds like a jamming session by a wanna be pop stars in their Dad's garage. With a mish mash of sounds that drown out (thankfully) Liam Gallagher's dire vocals, the only saving grace on this track has to be the backing vocals. I can only think it was die hard Oasis fans who bought the single version of this track. Why Roll with it was released prior to far greater tracks like Wonderwall and the UK chart topper Don't look back in anger remains a mystery only Oasis can answer.
Just when you're beginning to get just a touch fed up with this album and wondering why it was hyped so much, Oasis finally come up with the goods with Wonderwall and Don't Look Back in Anger. One very brave reviewer described in an article these tracks as Oasis getting in touch with their feminine side. I'm sure the Brothers Gallagher will one day forgive this remark. In a way it is a rather apt thought.
The album becomes some what softer with Wonderwall, Liam shows us that he isn't just a belt em out rock star that he does indeed have a fairly decent voice. The backing music is softened to give the perfect showcase for Liam's vocals. It is thought that Noel Gallagher wrote Wonderwall for his ex wife Meg Matthews, this is now veomently denied by him. Looking closely at the lyrics, it looks more likely it was written by someone who's slightly over whelmed by new found stardom and a new love. Ok so overwhelmed and Noel Gallagher don't fit easy into the same sentence but with lines like: "Because maybe your the one that's going to save me..." and "And all the roads we have to walk are winding And the lights that lead us are blinding". What ever the track is truly about you can not help but be drawn into this soft sounding and simplistic track. why it failed to get to the number one spot is beyond me.
You would be forgiven, in the brief seconds you hear the piano opener to Don't Look Back in Anger that you were about to hear John Lennon sing Imagine. Oasis have never hidden the fact that the Beatles heavily influenced them. From the near Imagine rip off this track does have that slightly hippy trippy feel of the Beatles circa 1968. Noel moves up to front the track vocally showing that he isn't just a good backing vocalist. Noel in an interview said that Don't Look Back in Anger was about:"not being upset about the things you might have said or done yesterday, which is quite appropriate at the moment. It's about looking forward rather than looking back. I hate people who look back on the past or talk about what might have been." If you look at the lyrics you get the feel that this could have been some drug inspired track with lines like: "Slip inside the eye of your mind. Don't you know what you might find.....a better place to play....." and "Take me to the place where you go Where nobody knows" It's a soulful track, filled with hope telling you not to waste life being angry and look to the future. Given that Noel Gallagher is not known for his peacenik views on life it's a surprising track, but a most welcoming surprise.
With Hey Now, Oasis ditch their so called feminine side and become brash and loud again. Many have slated this track as a filler and to be brutally honest it does sound like it. Liam sounds both bored, tortured and nasal as he belts out a performance that you can really take it or leave it. Hey Now is definitely not Oasis at their best. The guitars have been cranked back up and this mediocre track drags on. If there is one track you should hit the skip button on it's this one. If I was to sum up this track in 3 words it would be whiney( for the vocals and lyrics) loud ( for the awful musical arrangement) and tedious ( for the 5.41 minutes this track lasts).
Following on from Hey Now we have an unnamed instrumental break. Perhaps Oasis thought this was the perfect way to say go grab another beer, you're not missing much....
Some Might Say was the first track to be lifted of the album and rightly so headed to the top of the Uk charts. It's a typical Oasis track, with their signature stamped all over it. With hints of glam rock in the opener some how you can't help but sing along with this track especially when you're belting it down the fast lane.
With the opening bars of Cast No Shadow, the album steps down a tempo and becomes rather mellow and chilled out for the tribute that Noel Gallagher wrote for Richard Ashcroft ex front man of the Verve. With a slow melancholic feel to it this ballad sounds so unlike Oasis in some ways but in others with Noel's distinctive vocal sound you know instantly that this is an Oasis track. For someone who at the time was forever in the press due to his bad boy antics this is a very surprising track, within the lyrics you are given a glimpse of perhaps a softer Noel Gallagher not the notorious bad boy of Britpop we all know so well.
Oasis does pub singers version of the Beatles might be an apt way to describe She's Electric. It's got that happy go lucky feel to it. She's Electric has you humming along even when you don't want to. With it's tinkling sounding instrumental backing and nonsensical lyrics, it's very catchy and simplistic. By no means the best track on the block but not one I have my finger poised on skip as soon as I hear the opening bars.
With an opener that has you believing that sniper helicopters are over head - Apocalypse Now springs to mind springs to mind that then proceeds to take you into some dark and sobering electric guitar rifts you realize instantly that Morning Glory is about drugs and not the buy it over the counter kind either. Noel Gallagher when asked what Morning Glory was about simply said in an interview: drugs. Following on from Morning Glory is another instrumental that really does have you believe that they are higher than a kite when they laid down that track!
Perhaps the best track on the whole album is Champagne Supernova, with Paul Weller on backing vocal this is simply a superb track. Again you can see the influence that partaking in drug stronger than cough medicine has had on this track. Noel Gallagher readily admits that in his words he was out of it when he wrote parts of Champagne Supernova. With the lines 'Someday you will find me Caught beneath a landslide in a Champagne Supernova in the sky' Gallagher admits that this is as psychedelic as he gets. Champagne Supernova is a fitting anthem to close this album it's as if they saved the best for last.....
With Morning Glory, Oasis showed the world they weren't a one album wonder, with a showcase album that shows that they aren't just a one style band that they do indeed have the talent to pull of most things with style and creativity. Buy it for Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger, Cast No Shadow and Champagne Supernova.
"Here's a thought for every man Who tries to understand what is in his hands He walks along the open road of Love & Life surviving if he can"
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Oasis were already dubbed the New Beatles before the release ofWhat's The Story--within a ... more
month of it going multi-platinum,The Timesclaimed they were more important than the Fabs; and Liam Gallagher was inviting George Harrison to fight him on Primrose...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Oasis were already dubbed the New Beatles before the release ofWhat's The Story--within a ... more
month of it going multi-platinum,The Timesclaimed they were more important than the Fabs; and Liam Gallagher was inviting George Harrison to fight him on Primrose...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: The album has good songs and very interesting lyrics, also the album has an atractive cover. Disadvantages: This is not what you would usually expect from Oasis
Jul 16th, 2004
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