(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis

AM

Arctic Monkeys

A clinic in how to grow without sacrificing what made you great.

AM feels like the record Arctic Monkeys had been building up to for the preceding half-decade. There was a willingness to move away from the sound of a band playing together in a room and combine ’70s, Black Sabbath-style riffs with the sleek production of the Dr. Dre records they had bonded over as teenagers. Out of that emerged the most forward-thinking record of their still-young career—a mesmerizing blend of slick, rhythmic rock ’n’ roll with an R&B swing.

“It rebooted the whole thing.”

Alex Turner

Arctic Monkeys

Album opener and chief calling card “Do I Wanna Know?” is the blueprint for everything that AM was about: soulful hooks and spiky riffs set to a beat that sounded both brawny and minimalist. Arctic Monkeys had already made one of the most thrilling debut albums of all time in 2006’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not; their second masterpiece somehow eclipsed it, setting a template for how a band can grow and experiment without sacrificing what makes them special.

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

Oasis

The larger-than-life apex of ’90s British pop? Anyway, here’s “Wonderwall.”

Noel Gallagher had a novel way of overcoming Difficult Second Album Syndrome when it came to making (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?—he had it written already. While Oasis’ massive 1994 debut Definitely Maybe was an astounding introduction, these were supersized anthems made for mass sing-alongs and communal euphoria.

It soon became clear this was more than just your regular second album from an excellent rock band. This was the apex of the Britpop era, full of outsize egos and attitude and ambition, yet none bigger than theirs. How could it be allowed for so many classics to be next to each other on the same album? As well as “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” there’s the melancholy uplift of “Cast No Shadow,” the cosmic opus of “Champagne Supernova,” the thrilling crackle of the title track. It’s the story of the decade, unfurled in 50 minutes.

There was no stopping Oasis at that point; that was something that could only be done by the band themselves. But Morning Glory harnessed the chaos and turned it into something magical.

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AM

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?