Every Oasis Album - Ranked From Worst To Best
1. (What's The Story) Morning Glory?
Oasis' magnum opus, the Manchester five-piece had a lot to live up to following the critical acclaim of a debut album that gave them a meteoric rise to fame. Needing to prove they were not just a one-hit wonder, the stakes were higher than ever before, with the widely-broadcast 'Battle of Britpop' chart battle against arch-rivals Blur keeping Oasis perpetually in the public eye.
Blur's 'Country House' may have won the battle, selling almost 60,000 more copies than Oasis' 'Roll With It', but Oasis went on to win the war.
(What's The Story) Morning Glory? was an instant classic when it was released in 1995, while Blur's 'Country House'-lead The Great Escape was an oversaturated flop, its critical panning resulting in Blur leaving Britpop for more American-flavoured pastures of alternative rock.
The monolithic follow-up to Definitely Maybe, meanwhile, lived up to its hype and then some, carrying forward that earlier record's rock sensibilities while sharpening a more melodious edge, injecting some variation into an otherwise tedious formula. To read Morning Glory's tracklist feels at times like skimming down an Oasis Greatest Hits album - this, after all, is home to the rousing 'Hello', the timeless 'Don't Look Back in Anger', the nostalgic 'Champagne Supernova' and the unforgettable 'Wonderwall'.
Not one track on (What's The Story) Morning Glory? feels extraneous or misplaced, with even the instrumental interludes of the chopped-up 'The Swamp Song' adding to the record's atmosphere.
Had Oasis called it quits after Morning Glory, they would have found a place in the exclusive club of artists that had never made a bad album. Although later releases dampened the band's legacy, (What's The Story) Morning Glory? still holds up as a classic rock record, and tells a story so grand that it is still making headlines to this day.