Top Five Oasis Songs

Well, it finally happened. After eighteen years, Noel Gallagher has left Oasis, "with some sadness and great relief," effectively ending the band's existence. In honor of the first band I ever called my favorite, I give you the top five greatest songs from the Gallagher brothers.

5. I Hope, I Think, I Know
After the huge commercial success of (What's the Story) Morning Glory, Oasis was faced with the daunting task of following up one of the biggest hit records in not just British, but international history. While the follow up album, Be Here Now, was by no means as commercially successful as its predecessor, the album was a critical hit, and showed the band taking more and more risks in their music (the average song length is somewhere around seven minutes). "I Hope, I Think, I Know" is a declaration, a flip of the bird to the nonbelievers, a sort of "catch me if you can."

Favorite lyric-They're trying hard to put me in my place, and that is why I gotta keep running.

4. The Masterplan

I'm not sure I can think of any other band that puts more effort and time into their b-sides as Oasis did. An Oasis B-side is an A-side for any other band, in fact, Oasis's 1998 release The Masterplan is an entire album composed of nothing but B-sides. The title track is nothing short of a masterpiece, with its soft, haunting vocals laid over not just the band, but an entire back up orchestra. This one is a Noel classic.

Favorite lyric-There's four and twenty million doors,
down life's endless corridor.

3. Supersonic

At the beginning of this song on Oasis's Familiar to Millions live album, Liam says, "Let's have a couple more of these songs, Noel...write a couple more of these babies!" He's got a point. This song is Noel Gallagher at his best, he's a kid, he's lonely, and he's completely unapologetic. Supersonic is a psychedelic tour de force, it's a kid pouring his heart out on paper and you can hear it in every word of the song.

Favorite lyric-I need to be myself, I can't be no one else.

2. Wonderwall

There isn't much that needs to be said about Wonderwall. Noel's song for his girlfriend (and eventual wife), is the biggest Oasis hit of all time, not to mention the first Oasis song I ever heard. Every once and a while, a band creates something that's completely without flaw, something that can be enjoyed by virtually anyone, and a song that transcends its genre. For Oasis, Wonderwall is that song.

1. Live Forever

It's the best Oasis song ever recorded, and now that they're gone, it seems even more poignant. Off Oasis's first record, Definitely Maybe, the song in many way has the same feel as Supersonic, but on this song, Noel lets down his guard a little bit. It's the essence of what's always made Oasis so great, two kids from Manchester with nothing to lose, sharing their hopes and dreams with anyone who'll listen. This song is about being different, it's about not fitting in, and embracing the hell out of it.

Favorite lyric-Maybe you're the same as me, we see things they'll never see.

Stuff I Love-Third Edition

BE HERE NOW-SOMETHING I LOVE



Most of my friends don't really like Oasis's third record that much. In fact, most people I talk to don't like Oasis' third record much. "The songs are too long," "they don't seem to be about anything," and "none of the sound like Wonderwall" are some of the more frequent complaints. But to me, this album is the pinnacle of Oasis's brilliance, the height of their musical mastery.

Take, for instance, my personal favorite song on the record, "I Hope, I Think, I Know."



I just love this song. It starts like a shot to the face, and it just doesn't quit. It's vintage Oasis-Liam being loud, obnoxious, and non-conformist, and Noel and the boys backing him up with a sound so full it's hard to even pick out individual instruments at times. It's just the classic Oasis record-it doesn't get any better than this.

Yes, the songs are long, but it just works. No matter how many times the beat vanishes and comes back on "D'ya Know What I Mean," it it hits just as hard every time. And so what if "Around the World" is ten minutes long, it's a killer song, and you get to hear Liam Gallagher say the word "sheeeyyyinnne" a bunch of times. I think that's a pretty strong argument right there.

I guess part of it is also the time period in my life that the record makes me think of, being a kid in the ninth grade and religiously following Oasis's every move. The record showed Oasis heading in a new direction, experimenting with their sound and, at the same time, moving it forward in a way they, in my opinion, have never been able to repeat. This record is why I'm still a fan.