1. Definitely Maybe 10/10
Era defining classic that still sounds incredibly fresh and youthful. It feels like a moment in time captured, yet simultaneously timeless. My personal choice for the best debut album ever, full stop.
2. What’s the Story Morning Glory? 10/10
Could easily be mistaken for a greatest hits compilation.And if each song had been a single, it would be. Noel was pissing away classics with a golden cock in 1995 and Liam immortalized them.
3. The Masterplan 9.7/10
For anyone who doubts that Oasis lived up to their hype in the 90s, I point you to The Masterplan. To have this many classics just wasting away as B-sides is truly unparalleled. It’s an odds and sods collection of pure excellence.
4. Be Here Now 8.6/10
What should’ve been their magnum opus ended up being one just for the die-hards. Lyrically inept and bloated to comical proportions, Be Here nevertheless wins me over with an abundance of absurd yet stunning moments, and the dying flames of Oasis’ brilliant fire in the 90s.
5. As You Were 8.5/10
To see Liam’s comeback be as successful as it’s been has been truly inspiring, and this album reminded us that the music world will always be a better place with him in it. The Gallagher’s are at their best when they have something to prove, and this surprisingly modern and replayable record was the first time since 1997 that one of their releases felt like a real and exciting moment.
6. Who Built the Moon? 8.5/10
Noel works best with a foil, and although he lacks Liam’s ability to turn good songs into transcendent ones, David Holmes more than picks up the slack. For all the talk of it being experimental, it’s still as tuneful as Noel always is, and much more joyous than his recent work.
7. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds 8.4/10
In the same way Liam had something to prove with his debut solo album, Noel did as well, and he delivered. It was his strongest set of songs in quite a while, and a fittingly grand begin to a solid solo career.
8. Don’t Believe the Truth 8.3/10
This album seems to exist in a parallel universe where Oasis never fell from grace and stopped releasing great records. There’s a fire here that had been missing on the previous two Oasis records, and while it’s stylistically inconsistent, it has a great flow, a noticeable bite, and songs that proved they still had greatness to offer.
9. Chasing Yesterday 7.9/10
While not exactly remarkable, Chasing Yesterday remains extremely solid. Noel’s songwriting went from genius (90s) to dogshit (early 2000s) to consistent (2005-present) and this is a reliably worthwhile release.
10. Dig Out Your Soul 7.0/10
In which Oasis’ best post-90s work (The Shock of the Lightning, Falling Down) is let down by some of their worst (Waiting for the Rapture, Get Off Yer High Horse Lady). Thankfully, the good moments heavily outweigh the bad, the production is fantastic, and it’s a decent swan song for the band that changed countless lives.
11. Standing on the Shoulder of Giants 6.0/10
Moments of genuine brilliance here, and there are a few, are often overshadowed by the handful of shit songs. Which is a shame, because there are tunes here (Go Let it Out, Gas Panic!, Roll it Over) that hint at a psychadelic pop masterwork. As it stands, it’s a mediocre record. If Be Here Now signaled the end of the good times, SOTSOG signaled the beginning of the bad.
12. BE 5.8/10
Slightly superior to its predecessor, granted that’s not saying much. Although they could occasionally drop an excellent and adventurous tune, such as Flick Of the Finger, the songwriting in Beady Eye was never strong enough to silence its naysayers.
13. Different Gear, Still Speeding 5.5/10
Perhaps slightly better than its reputation? Then again, maybe not. It’s a grab bag of 60s pop, aimless psychedelia, and Oasis retreads. There are a handful of songs that make me happy it exists, but it’s not hard to see why this album didn’t set the fanbase on fire in the way that As You Were did.
14. Heathen Chemistry 3.0/10
The nadir of the Gallagher discography. It sounds like an Oasis cover band attempting to write their own material. After the hints of experimentation on SOTSOG, it’s disappointing that this is what they followed it up with, and became a parody of themselves. Even with the two gems, SCYHO and Songbird, this album is an embarrassment.
So overall, for a band that is constantly cited as peaking too early, when you look at their discographies as a whole, it becomes clear that while they never matched their first two records, there’s a lot of genuinely great albums in the Gallagher back catalogue. We’re still talking and still excited whenever any of them release new material, and that’s a feat unto itself.
Live Forever.
Nov 4, 2024 5:04:30 GMT -5
Nov 4, 2024 5:04:30 GMT -5