Every Oasis Song Ever, Ranked
At the culmination of the Oasis: Supersonic documentary, the band plays their massive 1996 Knebworth show, famously to over 250,000 people. As the show concludes, guitarist Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs reminisces, “Looking back, I honestly think we should have just went, ‘Thank you, every one of you for getting us here. We WERE Oasis, and goodnight,’” to which Noel Gallagher adds, “We should have disappeared into a puff of smoke.”
Of course, Oasis didn’t disappear into a puff of smoke. They went on to release five more albums (and one b-side album), none of which came close to living up to the hype and magnificence of their first two records: Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story?) Morning Glory. But that doesn’t mean their later work didn’t happen, and that doesn’t mean a young me didn’t eat up each and every one of those albums like candy.
Being an Oasis-addict in my teenage years, I’ve listened to every Oasis song hundreds of times, even the bad ones. I was too young and American to catch them in their hey day, but at 17-years old I finally got to see them live on their Don’t Believe The Truth tour. We all sang along to Don’t Look Back In Anger, but every time they played a song from their new album, my friends turned to me and asked, “What’s this one called?”
The reason I decided to make this list is because I knew, and still know, what each of those songs were and at least a blurb’s worth of info about them. Even the deep cuts from albums casual fans might not have known existed. My musical tastes have expanded, and I no longer listen to Oasis all day every day, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten all of the Oasis-related things I could get my hands on.
So here I am, taking on the impossible and fruitless task of ranking every single Oasis song. And by that I actually mean not every single Oasis song, sorry. The rules are: Only original songs from Oasis LPs (including the b-side compilation, The Masterplan) not including untitled instrumental tracks. Also the 1994 single Whatever is included because it was an important single and fuck it, it’s my list. I apologize to anyone who was excited to see their later-career b-sides or The Rain demos. Maybe someday I’ll revise it to include them. It’s a shame Bonehead’s Bank Holiday isn’t here, after all. Okay, here we go:
90. “I Can See a Liar” (Standing on the Shoulder of Giants)
The first dozen or so songs in these rankings are roughly in the same tier, and unfortunately, one of them has to be the worst. I Can See A Liar has earned that crown. The song sounds like what would follow after a middle-aged AC/DC cover band announces to the bar: “This next one’s an original.” For most of Oasis’s lifespan up to this point, their b-sides were relished nearly as much as their album cuts. But this one shouldn’t have even qualified as a b-side.
89. “A Quick Peep” (Heathen Chemistry)
A forgettable instrumental song strewn into the middle of Heathen Chemistry. It is unclear what purpose this track was supposed to serve, other than being the first non-Gallagher-written track on an Oasis record.
88. “The Nature of Reality” (Dig Out Your Soul)
Speaking of which, a lot of these lower ranked songs are going to be the ones not written by Noel- even if they’re penned by shoegaze legend Andy Bell. A plodding, pointless, guitar tune with no hooks, The Nature of Reality would be a pretty weak entry into a stock rock n’ roll music catalogue.
87. “To Be Where There’s Life” (Dig Out Your Soul)
Like the aforementioned track, this is another late album entry by someone a lot of casual fans wouldn’t even know was in the band. Guitarist Gem Archer said he “wanted to write an Oasis song with no guitars in it” — which, okay, cool, interesting approach. I’m not against it in theory. But the idea gets its point across a minute in… then drags on for another three and a half minutes. Even a relatively killer bass line can’t help this one.
86. “Hung in a Bad Place” (Heathen Chemistry)
Hey another song by Gem Archer, surprise. Heathen Chemistry gets knocked for a lot of reasons, including Liam’s proclamation that it belongs on the same shelf as Definitely Maybe. In his defense, the record kicks off pretty okay- until Hung in a Bad Place sinks the album into… a bad place.
85. “Better Man” (Heathen Chemistry)
Why oh why didn’t they let the album end with Born On A Different Cloud? It was a perfect closer! We didn’t need Better Man, nor it’s chorus of “Well alright now / a-yeah yeah yeah!”
84. “Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is” (Standing on the Shoulder of Giants)
A filler track on somewhat of a filler album in the Oasis catalogue. It kicks off cool, and it’s refreshing to hear an Oasis tune with keys and a dance beat instead of guitar and a rock beat. But it’s two minutes too long and lacking any meaning whatsoever in the lyrics, even by Oasis standards.
83. “The Meaning of Soul” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
A pointless Liam-penned track, but hey, at least it’s under two minutes long.
82. “Ain’t Got Nothin’” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
Another thankfully short DBTT cut that means nothing and exists only because theoretically there should be over 10 tracks on an LP.
81. “Little James” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants)
Liam’s first song! This one might get more hate than it deserves, but the lyrics, man. Liam had a long way to go.
80. “A Bell Will Ring” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
Gem Archer’s first entry with the band. While it’s better than the other one, there’s not a lot to write home about here either.
79. “Love Like a Bomb” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
Another quick Liam track featuring meaningless love lyrics. It’s a filler among fillers.
78. “(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady” (Dig Out Your Soul)
Noel tests out his falsetto to impressive results, but the song plods on and on and never goes anywhere.
77. “Hey Now!” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
Okay so I think we make a good leap into a new tier here. It’s probably sacrilegious to put any Morning Glory track below some of their later work, I get it, and while Hey Now fits perfectly onto a perfect album, even the best albums of all time have their worst track. For Morning Glory, it’s Hey Now.
76. “Digsy’s Dinner” (Definitely Maybe)
“I’ll sing any song, any time. Unless it’s Digsy’s Dinner.” — Liam Gallagher. Again, SOME song has to be the worst one on Definitely Maybe. Not many would argue it’s not Digsy’s Dinner. But anyone who claims it’s their worst song ever never listened to their later work.
75. “Mucky Fingers” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
I remember as a kid my mom wouldn’t let me play this song in the car because it was “as if a pounding headache were a song.” I’m a sucker for when it swells at the end but my mom’s not totally wrong that it’s a bit of a head-pounder to get there.
74. “She Is Love” (Heathen Chemistry)
A simple acoustic tune by Noel that’s kind of a “fill in the blank” love song. Noel’s capable of better than this.
73. “Let There Be Love” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
Like most of Oasis’s late-career Hail Mary attempts to emulate the Beatles, this one hasn’t aged well. But any song that combines front-and-center vocal duties between Noel and Liam is playing to their strengths, at least.
72. “Waiting for the Rapture” (Dig Out Your Soul)
This one’s a bit of a lifeless interlude wedged between a surprisingly exuberant one-two punch to kick off Dig Out Your Soul, and their stunningly good single, The Shock of the Lightning. The record would probably have been better off without this one, but it’s far from the worst track on DOYS.
71. “Guess God Thinks I’m Abel” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
Liam’s most thoughtful tune on DBTT, it’s nice to see him branch out into structure a little more. It’s not a perfect song by any means, but it’s nice, and it’s Liam’s, and sometimes that’s all you need.
70. “Fade In-Out” (Be Here Now)
The famous “Johnny Depp song” that suffers from the same thing most Be Here Now tracks suffer from: It’s way too long. Thanks, but we didn’t need to hang around to hear Liam tell us that “we fade in and out” thirty or so times.
69. “Force of Nature” (Heathen Chemistry)
Noel’s voice kicks right in on the second track of Heathen Chemistry, and you can tell he’s throwing everything he‘s got to make us buy in on the album. His voice sounds as strong as ever, hinting that he’d be taking on more vocal duties as Liam’s throat deteriorates.
68. “(It’s Good) to Be Free” (The Masterplan)
One of Noel’s favorites, and it certainly took on a new life and meaning as he’s played it at most of his shows since leaving Oasis. Wonder why.
67. “Gas Panic!” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants)
One of the times they somewhat succeeded treading into new territory on SOTSOG. Oasis had been brash, jubilant, and exciting- but never really brooding. This was their first and possibly only stab into that space, to modest results.
66. “Part of the Queue” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
Quick aside, Noel was fairly ahead of his time with the name Don’t Believe The Truth, yeah? Predates the term “fake news” by over ten years. As he states in the mini-doc supporting Don’t Believe The Truth: “Everybody thinks it’s important to tell the truth, but I wouldn’t believe any of it. None of it. Make your own fucking mind up.” Anyway, Part of the Queue is fine.
65. “Up in the Sky” (Definitely Maybe)
Not exactly a filler track, but in an album full of hits and classics, it’s simply another early Oasis song with the band keyed into the gear that made them great.
64. “My Big Mouth” (Be Here Now)
They’re firing on all the right cylinders here but why on earth is this song over five minutes long? Oh right, it’s on Be Here Now. Still, an underrated track on an underrated album.
63. “Where Did It All Go Wrong?” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants)
Noel finally steps in on SOTSOG to lament the band’s fever dream crash landing. A song I’m sure he wishes he could have sung to his younger self.
62. “The Swamp Song” (The Masterplan)
The little untitled track on Morning Glory gets a full treatment on The Masterplan, and it demonstrates how Oasis could seemingly effortlessly unleash pure energy onto their crowds.
61. “The Hindu Times” (Heathen Chemistry)
When Heathen Chemistry came out, Noel famously proclaimed it was the band’s second best album behind Definitely Maybe. He was, of course, catastrophically wrong. But The Hindu Times was a fairly strong opener- it’s just that it never got much better from there.
60. “Soldier On” (Dig Out Your Soul)
The last track on the last Oasis album- even though they didn’t know it at the time. It’s a proper enough sendoff, capturing a band with a good idea for a song but not being able to dig up any of the magic that brought their older songs to the next level. In the end they did soldier on, just no longer hand in hand.
59. “Turn Up the Sun” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
The first track on DBTT set the tone for a new wave of Oasis, one that had finally given up on trying to make a record better than their earlier work and instead settled into a new comfort zone. All it took was letting Andy Bell set the stage- hey! A song by a non-Gallagher that’s good!
58. “Underneath the Sky” (The Masterplan)
Can I ask a question real quick? Why wasn’t Round Are Way on The Masterplan? It was one of their best b-sides. Also Underneath the Sky is good! I like the opening, cool sound unlike any of their other work up to that point. This is probably my worst blurb among all ninety of these.
57. “Who Feels Love?” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants)
Trying to evolve like the Beatles by making music that sounds exactly like them is pretty much the opposite of what the Beatles did. The key wasn’t the sounds they made, per se, it was making sounds like no one did before them. Still, in it’s own right, Who Feels Love? is a good enough tune.
56. “Be Here Now” (Be Here Now)
If any song screams the presence of cocaine in the studio, it’s this one, and for that reason it’s the perfect title track for Be Here Now. If cocaine itself were to write a song, this is it.
55. “All Around the World” (Be Here Now)
Look, I don’t want to keep bringing it up, but the most noticeable thing about half the songs on Be Here Now is how long they are. And All Around The World isn’t just the longest song on the album, it’s the longest Oasis song EVER. Long songs aren’t playing to your strengths, lads. However, unlike most of the other overly long tracks, they managed here to craft one satisfying section after another, even if it takes a little too long to travel between them.
54. “(Probably) All in the Mind” (Heathen Chemistry)
A mostly forgotten track on a mostly forgettable album that actually holds up pretty well.
53. “Rockin’ Chair” (The Masterplan)
Good song. Hey listen- it’s not easy to write a blurb for every damn Oasis song ever, and I’ll be honest: I don’t have a thing to say about Rockin’ Chair. Instead I’m going to share one of my favorite Noel quotes about Liam: “He’s the angriest man you’ll ever meet. He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”
52. “Sunday Morning Call” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants)
Noel’s lyrics have a penchant to be something like his subconscious singing to himself. He spent the majority of his first three albums longing for superstardom, but now he had everything he wanted. Sitting in the south of France, trying to write a new record after nearly half his band had abandoned him, Noel manages to reassure himself: “You need more time, because your thoughts and words won’t last forevermore / And I’m not sure it will ever work out right” — somewhere deep down, Noel knows the initial run of Oasis was over.
51. “All Around the World (Reprise)” (Be Here Now)
Okay, right, did the longest Oasis song ever need a fucking reprise? And yeah, they lean into the Yellow Submarine strings in a big way. But there’s actually something perfectly sentimental about this album closer. Those footsteps walking out the door at the end of the track turned out to be the band walking out on the era of Britpop. If that’s when the Oasis door closed, they’d be remembered as one of the most legendary bands of all time. Well, they still are to me at least.
50. “Headshrinker” (The Masterplan)
A banger of a B-side, but you can see why it never made the cut on a proper album. It’s redundant compared to their other early work, yet they’re definitely keyed into the mode that made early Oasis so exciting.
49. “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” (Heathen Chemistry)
The song from The Butterfly Effect! Fun fact: This is Oasis’s sixth most popular song on Spotify. I didn’t realize it had caught on as much as it did. This song broke my heart in high school, but listening to it now, the sentimentality is kind of hard to take seriously. That said, I won’t dock too many points for it not holding up. The song served its purpose in its own time.
48. “Bring It on Down” (Definitely Maybe)
A highlight of Liam’s snarling attitude, this song pairs with Up In The Sky as outstanding in-between tracks from their earliest days on their first album.
47. “Shakermaker” (Definitely Maybe)
Coca-Cola lawsuits aside, Shakermaker demonstrated a psychedelic side to Oasis that showed they’re in the game for more than head-banging rockers.
46. “Fuckin’ in the Bushes” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants)
By the end of the Be Here Now, the cocaine fever dream was over, and it would’ve been understood if the band had called it quits. It seemed everyone had their fill of Oasis and Britpop in general. But unwilling to go into the cold dead night, they exploded into the new millennium with a bangin’ instrumental track that captured the attention of filmmaker Guy Ritchie, among others, bringing it notoriety for using it in his 2000 film Snatch.
45. “Lyla” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
In the spring of 2005, long after most people had thought much about the band, suddenly Oasis were on the radio again. And it wasn’t a pity spin, either- Lyla genuinely captured the ears of radio listeners a decade after Wonderwall’s heydey.
44. “Keep the Dream Alive” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
And here it is: the best song Oasis that wasn’t written by either Gallagher brother. Andy Bell penned a genuine Oasis tune, and it’s a highlight on an album that sparked a bit of an Oasis renaissance. There’s nothing really special about Keep The Dream Alive, but that only shows that sometimes all you need is some momentum and an authentic performance from Liam to carry a song.
43. “She’s Electric” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
As recordings for Morning Glory kicked off, Tony McCarroll was kicked out of the band because, as Noel said, “I like Tony as a geezer but he wouldn’t have been able to drum the new songs.” It’s brutal, but he has a point when you listen to songs like She’s Electric, that tap into a jazzy-beat gear that was foreign to Oasis on Definitely Maybe.
42. “I Hope, I Think, I Know” (Be Here Now)
Oasis was the beacon of relentless optimism among contemporaries focused on the dour and apathetic, and they never carried that torch more than they did on I Hope, I Think, I Know.
41. “It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)” (Be Here Now)
This song kind of flew under the radar in the Oasis mythos, and it’s a shame even if understandable. The band often got too stuck up their own ass with the self-indulgency on Be Here Now, but there were rare times the excess entered a hypnotic trance that served the song well. This was one of those times.
40. “Born on a Different Cloud” (Heathen Chemistry)
There’s probably hundreds of stories of Liam proclaiming he’s John Lennon, but only one song where he put his money where his mouth is. Born On A Different Cloud is the most musically sophisticated outing for Liam, and the only time he actually reached a level of lyric writing that could be considered profound. This would have been the perfect album closer if they didn’t decide to tack on Liam’s worst song afterwards.
39. “I’m Outta Time” (Dig Out Your Soul)
Hey cool, Liam learned how to write a catchy chorus- and the whole song is actually an enjoyable listen. Maybe he’s taking himself a little too seriously, and the Lennon words at the end of the song are WAY too on the nose, but I’m Outta Time is debatably Liam’s best tune.
38. “The Girl in the Dirty Shirt” (Be Here Now)
With how bombastic every single song on Be Here Now is, it’s hard to differentiate whether most of the album is filler or none of it is. The Girl in the Dirty Shirt doesn’t really stand out too much upon first listen, but coming back to it, you can hear the Gallagher brothers genuinely leaning into what they do best: Having fun with the music they make.
37. “The Turning” (Dig Out Your Soul)
Dig Out Your Soul is an interesting record because it includes some of their best tunes post-Morning Glory but also some of their worst music period. They had a lot of confidence between the first two tracks on this record- you can hear the newfound confidence. If this album finished as strong as it started, Oasis’s final record could have been remembered as their third best.
36. “Songbird” (Heathen Chemistry)
Liam’s first outing as a songwriter was obviously forgettable, but against all odds his second outing turned out to be a highlight. This was the only Liam-penned track to make the greatest hits record.
35. “Bag It Up” (Dig Out Your Soul)
If Turn Up The Sun was the Oasis album opener that discovered their late-career sound, Bag It Up was the song that perfected it. The band isn’t hiding their scars here- it seemed that after so many directionless years, the band had finally gotten back on track.
34. “Magic Pie” (Be Here Now)
After Be Here Now came out, Noel was asked in an interview what his five best songs ever were, and he did not hesitate to include Magic Pie. As we’ve learned several times by now, Noel has a penchant for recency bias. Don’t Look Back In Anger was an impossible act to follow, but that doesn’t mean Magic Pie isn’t a good song in it’s own right.
33. “Stay Young” (The Masterplan)
The defining advice Oasis could give, but unfortunately could not follow. If one band captured youthful exuberance in a bottle, it’s Oasis. “Stay Young” - if only it were that easy.
32. “Go Let It Out” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants)
Oasis was never going to reinvent music, but that didn’t stop them from trying. Stuck between playing to their strengths and avoiding redundancy, the Gallagher brothers landed on foregoing the guitar solos for most of SOTSOG, and they managed to pull it off on their first single.
31. “Little by Little” (Heathen Chemistry)
Following Morning Glory, Oasis toured with two rules: 1) Play songs from the new record, and 2) the hits from the first two. Save one exception: Turns out Noel had one last anthem in him that could stand the test of time. Little By Little didn’t light up a venue like Don’t Look Back In Anger, but hey, he deserves more than one song to shout into a filled arena, right?
30. “The Importance of Being Idle” (Don’t Believe The Truth)
One of Noel’s favorite songs- and this time he’s not just saying it because he’s on a promotional cycle. This one was called the best song of 2005 by Q Magazine.
29. “The Shock of the Lightning” (Dig Out Your Soul)
“I think since Standing on the Shoulder of Giants we’ve been trying to prove a point of just bass, drums, guitar and vocals and nothing fancy,” Noel told NME in 2007, “But I kind of like fancy! I’d like to make an absolutely fucking colossal album.” If only Noel realized this sooner. Oasis would soon release The Shock of the Lightning leading up to their final album, and it seemed like something had finally clicked for Noel: Maybe Oasis is at the peak of their powers when they don’t turn the excess up to 11 (Be Here Now) but instead only to about 9 (The Shock of the Lightning).
28. “Falling Down” (Dig Out Your Soul)
At the end of Noel’s hilarious DVD commentary on every Oasis music video ever, he proudly proclaims, “I love this tune. I think it’s quite fitting that it was the last Oasis single because I think it’s the best song I’d written in a long long long long time. The greatest feel, lyrics, sounds, playing, everything’s fantastic about it … If I was to sit here now and listen to Supersonic as the first and Falling Down as the last, I’d think, ‘well that’s a fuckin’ pretty good journey, that is, between those two.’ The songs are shit in between, but to bookend your career with those two? That’ll do me.” It’s really refreshing to hear Noel really truly love one of their post-Morning Glory songs. Falling Down earns it.
27. “Listen Up” (The Masterplan)
One can only wonder what the early Oasis b-sides could have been if they saved them for a proper LP. “One fine day, we’re gonna leave it all behind,” laments Liam- too bad the day the Masterplan was released was the day they left their best years behind.
26. “Hello” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
Okay can we talk about something for a second? Maybe I somehow missed the conversation around this, but can we talk about how this song opens up with a super quiet version of Wonderwall, presumably for the listener to turn the volume in their stereo all the way up to hear it, only to get fuckin’ BLASTED by the sirens going off for Hello? What a way to ride your own momentum and show the world you’re not a one-album wonder.
25. “Half the World Away” (The Masterplan)
Half the World Away was a testament to the fact that Noel went on a tear for a few years where he couldn’t write a bad song. Even if it’s a simple little acoustic tune, Oasis was at a stage where buying the album wasn’t enough- you had to make sure to own the singles to hear the b-sides as well.
24. “Fade Away” (The Masterplan)
Speaking of b-sides, not many bands had the ability to announce one as their next song at a show and have the audience react as enthusiastically as they would to any A-side. But in Oasis’s heyday their fans were hanging onto every electrifying note.
23. Whatever
The only track on this list not from any album, Whatever spawned from a time when fans couldn’t get enough Oasis and Christmas was around the corner. With the label’s blessing (and budget) why not try your hand at some strings? Noel was unstoppable at the time so he threw ’em in. And hey- turns out it was true that he couldn’t write a bad song.
22. “Talk Tonight” (The Masterplan)
Most of us know the story- Noel left the band while on tour, thought about quitting the band, met a woman who talked him out of it, then wrote a song about it. Talk Tonight is a b-side that became a fan favorite, mostly thanks to the stripped back production and authenticity of Noel’s voice. Up until then, Noel was behind the scenes, singing the backing vocals and architecting the perfect soundscape to accentuate Liam’s voice. But this was a chance for the audience to sit face to face with Noel, and wouldn’t you know, it’s really quite a moving experience.
21. “Acquiesce” (The Masterplan)
Noel and Liam, in happier days, singing that they need each other. A little on the nose, but we’ll take it. It’s true, after all. Hey when’s the reunion show? I feel like all of Liam’s solo work has been an effort to prove to his brother that he’s revived his voice. And even if there’s some work happening backstage to make it sound good- it does in fact sound good. Still, I don’t foresee it happening. And I want to go on record that it’d be criminal to go on stage as “Oasis” without Noel, as Liam has been somewhat suggesting recently.
20. “Roll It Over” (Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants)
By the end of SOTSOG, it’d be understood to have given up on the next wave of Oasis. But anyone who turns it off before the last track is closing the door on a glimmer of hope, because for a brief moment, Liam’s right there with you. “I can give a hundred million reasons to build a barricade,” he laments as the track opens. Roll It Over is Oasis finally getting real with themselves, which means throwing the entire studio at the track, including a full choir of gospel singers accompanying the Gallaghers as they try to convince the audience they don’t need anybody, and never did. “Roll it over, my son. Leave me here.” The sincerity is a breath of fresh air after listening to an entire album of a band pretending they’re someone they’re not.
19. “Roll with It” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
The song famous for battling Country House for the Britpop title. How many times has it been written that Oasis lost the battle but won the war? Are we sure about that at this point? Maybe Blur never gained the traction of Oasis, but Damon Albarn certainly knew how to carve out a lasting role in the cultural zeitgeist. Anyway, Roll With It rules.
18. “Columbia” (Definitely Maybe)
This song is caught somewhere between putting you in a hypnotic trance and punching you in the teeth. Columbia proves Oasis doesn’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk.
17. “Cigarettes & Alcohol” (Definitely Maybe)
I’m just gonna rip this off Wikipedia: “Upon first hearing the song, the man who discovered the band, Alan McGee, boisterously claimed that the song was ‘one of the greatest social statements of the past 25 years.’” And uhh yeah, he’s not wrong. Perfectly encapsulating disenfranchised youth, it scratched a cultural itch to just come out and say it: In a post-Thatcher UK, drinking and smoking was way better than chasing runaway capitalism.
16. “Don’t Go Away” (Be Here Now)
When I was a young pre-teen in the early 2000s, before I got REALLY into Oasis, My friends and I thought Don’t Go Away was on Morning Glory. It’s probably the only song from Be Here Now that would have fit in on that album. Liam was still able to break our hearts on this track, and break our hearts he did.
15. “The Masterplan” (The Masterplan)
Noel doesn’t shy away from calling himself “young and stupid” for releasing The Masterplan as a b-side. But he was on such an unstoppable tear as a great songwriter, it’s hard to blame him- if you’ve never written a bad song, then all your good songs seem expendable, right? After all, you can just write another. Unfortunately for him, there was no “another” Masterplan. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t earn it’s own place near the top of the Oasis legend.
14. “Going Nowhere” (The Masterplan)
Oasis were always at their peak daydreaming about what they wanted and didn’t have, but they usually threw a rock beat behind it and turned the amps up to 11. But this was a different turn for Oasis, one that demonstrated Noel’s breadth as a songwriter. He could do more than throw power-pop rock in a blender or slow things down with an acoustic ballad- he could write a sophisticated tune with strings and keys and horns instead of guitars and guitars and more guitars. And he could do it while sincerely capturing his mind’s wandering eye, daydreaming of grandeur on a train ride to nowhere. It’s really a beautiful and overlooked song.
13. “Stand by Me” (Be Here Now)
The only Be Here Now track worthy of making it onto the live album a few short years later, it’s on a short list of tracks from that era the band didn’t immediately distance themselves from. For good reason too- it’s an excellent tune. If you haven’t seen the “Acoustic by the Pool” version on YouTube, I highly recommend it- one of the best live demonstrations of Liam not just being a great frontman, but a damn good singer too, at least early on. His and Noel’s harmonies showcase a chemistry that can’t be manufactured.
12. “Supersonic” (Definitely Maybe)
There’s no way the band could have known where their debut single would take them, but it’s poetic it came together as a song written and recorded in a single 3am session by Noel. Sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle, or in Oasis’s case, you manage to catch it a few times.
11. “D’You Know What I Mean?” (Be Here Now)
Be Here Now was one of the most anticipated albums of all time, but when the Oasis publicists heard the record and realized it wouldn’t be as good as Morning Glory, they quickly tried to dial back the hype, spinning to the press that the new record is the lads having fun instead of trying to conquer their previous works. Whatever sentiment they tried to communicate, “D’You Know What I Mean?” didn’t catch any wind of it. The band had conquered the world, and DYKWIM is Liam and Noel confidently stepping onto the stage as the biggest band in the world, summoning their followers to join them.
10. “Cast No Shadow” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
This was a different turn for Noel as a songwriter, something more sentimental and sincere. Cast No Shadow showed a version of Oasis with some depth, and Liam’s shouting tone was somehow well transformed for delivering an affectionate sentiment.
9. “Morning Glory” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
It’s just one note, struck four times, then slid up a whole step. How the fuck is it so iconic? The tone of that guitar kicking off the song is unlike anything before or after it. Go back and listen to Morning Glory like it’s the first time you heard it. That intro is a god damn siren that woke up something inside me: Time to go chase the sunset or whatever it was Oasis wanted me to do.
8. “Some Might Say” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
Noel calls this the archetypical Oasis song- if one song embodied the band for all their glory and faults, it’s Some Might Say. The song was the first one recorded for Morning Glory, and the last one featuring original drummer Tony McCarroll on the skins. That apex moment between their two definitive first two albums was probably the moment Oasis plateaued in the universe, so it’s fair to say it is the archetypical Oasis song, even if they never found that brighter day.
7. “Married with Children” (Definitely Maybe)
Throughout Definitely Maybe, Oasis either tore the roof off of the venue they were playing or blew out the stereo you were listening to. Each song screamed yearning and escape and youth right into your face, backed by seemingly the only way the band knew how to operate: by blasting open your ear drums. If Definitely Maybe is the most exciting night out of anyone’s life, Married with Children was the cup of tea the next morning, back when that’s all you needed to get raring up to do it all again. A perfect way to end a perfect album.
6. “Wonderwall” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
A trillion words have been written about Wonderwall, and it’s probably the most overplayed song of all time. But if you were to hear it for the first time today, chances are you’d love it. I can’t dock points because it’s been played to death, especially because the reason it’s been played so many times is because it’s so great.
5. “Slide Away” (Definitely Maybe)
When I was a teenager surfing the Oasisinet.com message boards I met a woman in her twenties from Buenos Aires. I lied and said I was also in my twenties, and we managed to bridge the language gap enough to become internet friends. I thought she was the coolest person ever. I had somehow managed to miss Slide Away on Definitely Maybe (I was early into my Oasis-listening career at the time) and she turned me onto it. It was her favorite song. I wonder what she’s up to these days.
4. “Rock ’n’ Roll Star” (Definitely Maybe)
If the first song on your first album is supposed to be the thesis statement for your career than Oasis just about knocked it out of the park, didn’t they? They built their kingdom on dreams of being a rock n’ roll star. And fucked if they weren’t damn good at it.
3. “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
There’s a handful of anthems out there for which nothing could stop every person in the stadium from singing along to the chorus. Most of them have a tendency not to age well- but Don’t Look Back in Anger is seemingly immune to time. Every time it’s played it’s a meaningful event for every person in the crowd- like Oasis fans need to pack into a crowded space and shout AND SOOOO SALLY CAN WAIT every five years or they’d perish.
2. “Live Forever” (Definitely Maybe)
Turns out writing about the bad Oasis songs is a lot easier than writing about the good ones. So many words have already been written about these songs, there’s damn documentaries about these songs. I don’t have much extra to contribute. I wrote this, but it sounds like something I’d already read before. Here it is if you’d like to read it:
In the spring of 1993, Nirvana released a single called “I Hate Myself and Want to Die,” which rubbed Noel the wrong way, despite being a professed fan of the band. Speaking of Kurt Cobain, Noel said, “Seems to me that here was a guy who had everything, and was miserable about it. And we had fuck-all, and I still thought that getting up in the morning was the greatest fuckin’ thing ever, ’cause you didn’t know where you’d end up at night.”
In an age filled with songs about hating oneself and wanting to die, it was almost daring to bring optimism to the radio. But the public latched onto it- maybe it was the anthem they didn’t know they needed.
The scene from Oasis: Supersonic captures it perfectly: There’s no way Noel had written that song, right? He was just an underclass kid- normal people can’t write songs like that. But that’s probably why it transcends all the other songs of its time- it came from a young dreamer with a guitar, and nothing else.
1. “Champagne Supernova” (What’s The Story Morning Glory)
Alright, I might catch some flak for this, so let me say with certainty: Any of the top three songs could occupy this spot, or hell, even a handful from the top 15. But I believe this isn’t just the best Oasis song ever, it’s one of the best songs ever period. It’s some kind of dreamy anthem that transcends music. Every moment is precious. It captures a feeling in a way that’s never really been put to tape.
Listening to Champagne Supernova as a child activated something in my soul. There was some kind of god out there, and a glimpse of it was captured in this song. It began a search for something that I’ve never been able to find, or even put into words. I’ve spent my life trying to re-capture the feeling I had the first dozen or so times I heard Champagne Supernova when I was 8 years old. Maybe someday I’ll find it.
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For any inquiries, the twitter handle is: @scarecrowbar
