Every couple of years a band will come along and remind you about how bloody great British guitar music can be and 20 years ago in 1995 Oasis came along with their second album ‘What’s The Story? (Morning Glory)’ which brought working-class Manchester wit to the masses.
Using a mastering technique called brickwalling which meant the music was loud and at a constant level with the vocals…and some might say that during the recording of ‘What’s The Story?’ the Gallagher brothers pretty much brickwalled each other to some extent; Most notably on this album where the Gallagher brothers were at loggerheads (what’s new?) over who should sing the vocals on ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’. “What’s The Story?” ended up selling some 20 million copies worldwide, became the first album to go platinum 14 times and was only dethroned of that title by Adele’s “21” in 2011 which made it most important rock records of the ’90s and beyond.
The album signalled the Gallagher’s shift from power-rock of the preceding debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’ towards more melodic, anthemic, mid-tempo numbers and ballads, such as ‘Some Might Say’ and ‘Cast No Shadow’, whose sophisticated instrumentation and synth-string arrangements helped make “What’s The Story?’ album a feat not to be messed with on the Britpop landscape. And who could forget the infamous Britpop Blur vs Oasis battle between ‘Roll With It’ and ‘Country House’ saga? Shitelife, we say! ‘Wonderwall’ also became such a worldwide hit that ever since, in our experience, there’s always one person who digs out an acoustic guitar at a party and mutters those mind-numbing words of ‘Today is gonna be the day That they’re gonna throw it back to you ‘…
Here’s some Spotify facts about the ‘What’s The Story (Morning Glory)’ album…
It is most streamed in UK
Is listened to by 36% female, 64% male
It is most popular with 18-22 year olds
The highest ever number of streams on 2 October 2015
Wonderwall is the albums most streamed track with 116,964,617 plays!