The Album Review Club - Week #194 (page 1303) - Ants From Up There - Black Country, New Road

Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Oasis - Definitely Maybe

I've enjoyed listening to this over the past week for a few reasons. One, because of my 3 favourite Oasis albums, it's the one I've least listened to over time.

The one that got me into the band was their second, WTS(MG), and it may still rank highest with me. It wasn't until I heard The Masterplan, however, that I really took this band to be one of my favourites, but a lot of that is due to Noel on vocals.

I won't repeat a lot of what others have said thus far, but I found a lot of similar feelings with Rob in that the album for me didn't get going until track three with "Live Forever". I honestly still feel like I could do without the first two songs entirely - they're just nowhere near my top ones from this band. The string of good songs after LF really hit the sweet spot of the album for me, with "Columbia", "Supersonic", and "Bring It On Down" being the best string of three on the album, with the final one the best of them collectively. The guitars really stood out to me on that last one, really hitting the feeling that BH was talking about.

For full disclosure, "Cigarettes & Alcohol" has never been a song I've particularly liked, but I wasn't a big fan of "Get It On" by T. Rex either. Oh well.

The album ends well with "Slide Away" probably being one of the top songs here, and "Married With Children" also being a decent closer for a change up tempo wise without the heavy guitars.

Unlike many of the Oasis fans, I'm fine if the band never gets back together. I know that may not be popular here or with their most ardent fans, but I very much like Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds as a band, and am fine with continuing to mostly ignore whatever Liam Gallagher is doing. Noel gets to shine on his own, and that is perfectly fine with me.

I still say on the whole, The Masterplan with Noel singing (on) most tracks and "Acquiesce" and "The Masterplan" being songs that took this band to a place I didn't think they could get to, I just don't think this album measures up to that and WTS(MG).

For the record, I don't care if they are considered pop, rock, Britpop, whatever... they're an important part of the history of music from Manchester, England, and for that, they'll always be influential, and what led me to other bands later on that I enjoy even more.

For me, this album is a 7/10 as a strong debut, not the best lyrically, but with 4 songs (LF, BIOD, SA, and MWC) being among the top ones that I still enjoy listening to today. Thanks to @BlueHammer85 for the nomination and the trip down memory lane. Wish I was here prior for The Masterplan too...
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Of course I respect everyone's opinion and you are entitled to yours, but suggesting that the album doesn't get going until track three is as bizarre an opinion on Definitely Maybe as I've heard.

Rock 'n' Roll Star is literally the band bursting into our collective consciousness and announcing themselves to the music world. It tells us how the next 4 or 5 years are going to be. You might not like the song personally but the opening chords of that song is the very announcement that Oasis are here.
 
Coatigan said:
On the bus back yesterday, a few teens were chatting about their recent Liam gig in Glasgow. They were complaining how many songs off this album (missing the point it was a 30yr anniversary tour) he played and not enough of the hits. One said, he didn't even play wonderwall, and that's what everyone was there to see.

Then they proceeded to play Oasis hits on their phones for the whole bus.

Made me think, that's Oasis in a nutshell. Anything that is so basic that you can tolerate listening to on your shitty tinney phone speaker, where you only really need the one catchy line barely audible, has got to be simple pop. Anything with a bit of depth, you would switch off and revisit to listen to properly. Imo.
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To be fair to the kids, quite the difficult ploy to transport and rig up your Sonos sound system to get maximum output when you are looking to reminisce (or is it imagine for them?) a bit of Brit-pop fused rock......... ;-)
 
Coatigan said:
On the bus back yesterday, a few teens were chatting about their recent Liam gig in Glasgow. They were complaining how many songs off this album (missing the point it was a 30yr anniversary tour) he played and not enough of the hits. One said, he didn't even play wonderwall, and that's what everyone was there to see.

Then they proceeded to play Oasis hits on their phones for the whole bus.

Made me think, that's Oasis in a nutshell. Anything that is so basic that you can tolerate listening to on your shitty tinney phone speaker, where you only really need the one catchy line barely audible, has got to be simple pop. Anything with a bit of depth, you would switch off and revisit to listen to properly. Imo.
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Too many songs off DM on the DM tour lol, What a waste of a ticket
 
bennyboy said:
Liam setlist looks great for the 30th anniversary tour.
www.setlist.fm

Liam Gallagher Setlist at The OVO Hydro, Glasgow

Get the Liam Gallagher Setlist of the concert at The OVO Hydro, Glasgow, Scotland on June 20, 2024 from the Definitely Maybe 30th Anniversary Tour and other Liam Gallagher Setlists for free on setlist.fm!
www.setlist.fm www.setlist.fm
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Seen it in Dublin, it was great, the arena was bouncing
 
bennyboy said:
Liam setlist looks great for the 30th anniversary tour.
www.setlist.fm

Liam Gallagher Setlist at The OVO Hydro, Glasgow

Get the Liam Gallagher Setlist of the concert at The OVO Hydro, Glasgow, Scotland on June 20, 2024 from the Definitely Maybe 30th Anniversary Tour and other Liam Gallagher Setlists for free on setlist.fm!
www.setlist.fm www.setlist.fm
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Not I'm not overplaying it - it was fucking terrific at the Co-op last week.

I'm still enjoying little euphoric flashbacks.........
 
I was around 31 when this album came out so maybe just outside the main demographic. It was a time though that I wasn't so much trying to recapture my youth but compensate for the one I didn't have much of in the first place and between marriages Oasis certainly fitted the bill for the feeling of something or other that I had at the time.

I don't know why I didn't get to see them at Maine Road in April 1996, I guess it had sold out quickly and it was probably the time when you had to actually urn up somewhere to buy tickets. In any case I remember feeling I was missing out big time on an "event". I was at Maine Road though when Wonderwall was adapted to elulogise Alan Ball and Georgie KInkladze, the latter more deserving of it than the former to be fair.

I left the UK for a couple of years in September 1996, Oasis two albums into their career and again pre internet days it was hard to keep up with the music scene in the UK from where I was but on returning home I found that Oasis had less to offer me than they had before. I think I have most of their albums downloaded but can honesly say I can hardly name a track on some of them and rarely feel like I want to listen to them.

Another random memory apropos of nothing I remember feeling really disappointed when the Oasis v Blur thing was at it's height and Roll With It came up against Country House. Roll With It just felt like it had been knocked out without much effort and was up against a band I didn't particularly like but put in a decent perfomance on that occasion. Reminds me now of the recent FA Cup final but that is probably a bit tenuous.

Anyway to this album, I hadn't listened to it for a while but was very pleasantly surpised to discover that it was something I would want to listen to more than I do. Similar to the Jam last week I set off on a retrospective to see what I might have missed. Morning Glory is also a great listen on the whole, I can't say one of these two albums is better than the other but half way through Be Here Now I could find my interest waning and I kind of gave up on listening to the rest. Maybe one day...

I like Noel's solo stuff but not to the extent that I play that so often either and there are a lot of good tracks on the Masterplan. Definitely, Maybe is certainly of the moment but was great to listen to it again and it's worth an 8.
 
21 votes, 39 pages of discussion and reminiscing. Definitely Maybe by Oasis scored an average of 7.55 which is a fine display and good enough for 8th position in the table.

With his crafty selections and his finger on the Bluemoon musical pulse, @BlueHammer85 has his 3rd entry in the top 8.

Now it's over to @OB1 for this week's nomination.
 
Come on @ob1let's be having you!

I'm imagining a change of track into
drum n bass this time? Maybe a bit of Roni Size :-)
 
Cellarite said:
Of course I respect everyone's opinion and you are entitled to yours, but suggesting that the album doesn't get going until track three is as bizarre an opinion on Definitely Maybe as I've heard.

Rock 'n' Roll Star is literally the band bursting into our collective consciousness and announcing themselves to the music world. It tells us how the next 4 or 5 years are going to be. You might not like the song personally but the opening chords of that song is the very announcement that Oasis are here.
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I get it, I do, but the first 2 songs really don't do as much for me as others. I am comforted in knowing I'm not alone here in feeling that way.

I should also note that I do get why the opening track, especially the guitars, really do it for others, because they are great on that song. However, it's some of the drawn out vocals that tune me out, even if it addresses the soon-schiiiine and all that.

This wasn't the first album I listened to from them, and by the time I heard it I had other songs I rated higher. I'd have the 4 I listed in my top 15 or so, but not others.
 
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RobMCFC said:
21 votes, 39 pages of discussion and reminiscing. Definitely Maybe by Oasis scored an average of 7.55 which is a fine display and good enough for 8th position in the table.

With his crafty selections and his finger on the Bluemoon musical pulse, @BlueHammer85 has his 3rd entry in the top 8.

Now it's over to @OB1 for this week's nomination.
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And Rush's Moving Pictures remains the leader in the number of votes race with 23! Must say I thought this one would surpass that.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
And Rush's Moving Pictures remains the leader in the number of votes race with 23! Must say I thought this one would surpass that.
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I'm also going to admit that I'm more than a bit bothered that this scored higher than The Masterplan, but that was week 3 here, and the audience has changed considerably.

I'd be just a bit curious where the nominator of both albums ranks them on his own list? ;-)
 
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