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Album Review
by SashaS
10-9-2004
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| Oasis: a decade of 'Definitely Maybe' |
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Oasis: 'Definitely Maybe'
(Big Brother Recordings Ltd)
Kickin’ the right objection, once
A decade ago Oasis had their debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’ ready for release: the signs were good - ‘Supersonic’, ‘Shakermaker’ and ‘Live Forever’ were hits, charting at positions 31, 11 and 10 respectively - the band was fresh, impatient and ambitious, there were dreams, a future! They were hot, media were salivating over them, fans with sizzling with anticipation and the album, naturally, rushed to the top of the charts!
Ten years down the time corridor, after drugs, busts and divorces - [aside the Gallagher bros with a completely different line-up], we get the re-release of the album with additional material such as an hour long, song-by-song, documentary on the recording of the disc, all the promo videos with alternative versions and director’s commentaries, live performances, stories and anecdotes… It is getting-old history, dude.
And, because of it, it is very difficult to be objective about these songs that do sound a tad dated and strangely vital, animated, energetic and inviting whilst clearly a soundtrack to some previous lives. To score this album a decade later is useless due to being burdened with all the knowledge about the band and its subsequent activities.
Years later they would appropriately name an album - ‘Standing on the Shoulder of Giants’ - because they are a band who owns more to their idols. No, they are not simply recyclers, copyists but so much tuned into the vibe of their inspirations they could make them sound as much deju entendu as original tracks. It is like Noel is familiar with some ancient spirituality…
In 1994 they were open and eager to do promotion and talked to the media to the point of saturation. We found a little gem [not included on the bonus DVD but revealed to the defunct Melody Maker] of Noel talking about his favourite film: “When ‘Star Wars’ came out I was about 11. Basically, it’s a love story about some guy going to rescue some bird - but the special effects were top. To me, it‘s on television, every Christmas Day, forever.”
“You’ve got villains and heroes and heroines. You’ve got C3PO doing the body popping that the guy from Shalamar [a proto-dance act] nicked. You’ve got R2D2 with his little techno voice, which is where all these dance bands get it all from, and you’ve got Chewbacca the Wookie, who’s like a drummer.”
“It’s true: if Chewbacca the Wookie was in a band, he’d a f**king drummer. If Han Solo was in a band, he’d be a guitarist. Luke Skywalker woul be a singer. Obi-Wan Kenobi would be the manager. And Darth Vader would be Alan McGee: ‘(deep eerie breaths) That’s a single man… it melts you, man… (more deep eerie breaths)’.”
“It’s a classic film. And I bought the dolls and the light sabres and all that shit. I paid to go and see it as the ciinema, and it was complete wonderment. At the time, ‘Star Wars’ was like Nintendo or something, ’coz the special effects were so far ahead of anything that had been seen before. The film I’d seen before that was ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, and the best thing that had it in was a car going underwater. Big deal!”
“‘Star Wars’ had x-wing Fighters and light sabres and the death star and all that. If somebody said, here’s two quid, go and rent your last film, it’d have to be 'Star Wars'.”{*}
September 2004 is the time when Noel informed us that it is unlikely there will be any new material from the band this year. The group were due to release a new album this autumn - a follow up to 2002's ‘Heathen Chemistry’ - but scrapped most of the new songs halfway through recording sessions after they went down poorly at the Glastonbury Festival this summer.
Noel has now admitted that although he would still like to release a new single this year, it now looks unlikely. He said the band was back in the studio working hard on getting the new album right.
"We've finished about four tracks now, so in an ideal world we'll have a single out by the end of the year," Gallagher said. "But it's probably looking like it'll be February next year."
The release of the new album could be around March 2005, he told BBC Radio 1.
8/10
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{*} Noel Gallagher’s second favourite film at the time was ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’.
SashaS
10-9-2004
Oasis’ album ‘Definitely Maybe’ is re-released 06 September 2004 by Big Brother Recordings Ltd/SINE
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