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Oasis · S2 E6
Definitely Maybe
August 29, 1994. The fastest-selling debut album in UK history. Straight to number one. The council estate kids from Burnage own the charts.
The phone at Creation Records hasn't stopped ringing all week. Definitely Maybe has sold 100,000 copies in four days, and the fastest-selling debut in British history belongs to a band that was loading its own van eighteen months ago.
Oasis, Go Let It Out (2000). The confidence that Definitely Maybe built. By 2000, Oasis sounded like they owned every room they walked into, and it started right here, with album number one.
Go Let It Out, Oasis (2000)
The lead single from Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but the swaggering confidence traces straight back to Definitely Maybe hitting number one. The production is bigger and slicker than the debut, but the attitude is identical: we're here, we're loud, deal with it. Noel layers acoustic and electric guitars into a wall that pushes forward without stopping. Listen for the way the rhythm section drives the verses with an almost motorik pulse before the chorus explodes into full Oasis.
The Fixer
After the Monnow Valley disaster, Creation Records calls in a last resort: Owen Morris, a young engineer obsessed with making records louder than anyone thinks they should be. Morris works at Johnny Marr's studio in Manchester, strips away most of Noel's guitar overdubs, then rebuilds the dynamics from scratch. Marr himself is reportedly appalled by how 'in your face' the result sounds. Morris doesn't care.
Sources
Definitely Maybe, Wikipedia
MOJO, 1995
“Definitely Maybe was the last great punk album.”
— Noel Gallagher, MOJO
TAP TO REVEAL: What recording trick did Owen Morris steal from Phil Spector?
Number One
On August 29, 1994, Definitely Maybe arrives. It sells 100,000 copies in its first four days and enters the UK chart at number one on September 4. It is the fastest-selling debut album in British history. The lads who were loading their own van a year ago now own the biggest chart in the country.
Sources
Definitely Maybe, Wikipedia
Hot Press, 2024
Who mixed Definitely Maybe and made it sound louder than anyone expected?
Married with Children, Oasis (1994)
The final track on Definitely Maybe, and the quietest thing on the entire album. Liam sings an acoustic love song, or maybe an anti-love song, with a melody so gentle it barely sounds like Oasis. It's the record's goodbye note, and proof that after all the noise, these lads could do quiet too.
Married with Children, Oasis (1994)
'I hate the way that even though you know you're wrong, you say you're right.' The acoustic closer to Definitely Maybe. Eleven tracks of volume and fury, and then Liam's voice stripped bare over a single guitar, singing about a relationship like a normal human being.
Definitely Maybe: The Numbers
The album is number one, but there's one more single to release from it. 'Cigarettes & Alcohol' is about to turn a borrowed T. Rex riff into the working-class anthem of the decade.
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