Oasis - (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
On October 2, 1995, "Oasis" released "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", their second studio album.
Just over a year after "Definitely Maybe", "Oasis" approached their second album as the great hope of British rock. Their debut had set the bar high: excellent songs, an unmistakable sound, and a singer who sounded as though the world owed him something. With "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?", "Oasis" met that standard and took their audience far beyond Britain.
This album contains some of the most recognizable rock songs of the 1990s, but it is worth listening to what happens between them, too. Alongside the songs everyone in the pub knows by heart are the wonderful harmonies of "Cast No Shadow", the humor of "She's Electric", and the wild playing on the title track. That sequence gives the album its character. It can be loud and swaggering, then turn as melodic as only "The Beatles" could be, touching on loneliness and longing. Of course, when an album includes timeless hits like "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger", not everything can work equally well. Yet Noel and Liam never did it better, and even now, more than three decades later, we can confidently call this their most fully realized work.
The story began in Manchester in 1991 with "Rain", whose lineup included Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs on guitar, Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan on bass, and Tony McCarroll on drums. Liam Gallagher joining as singer and the change of name to "Oasis" laid the groundwork, but the arrival of his older brother Noel Gallagher completely changed the band's course. Noel brought the songs and a clear vision. Liam gave them their voice and presence. After Alan McGee saw them at "King Tut's Wah Wah Hut" in Glasgow in 1993, a deal with "Creation Records" followed, and things moved quickly from there.
Their debut album, "Definitely Maybe", released in August 1994, topped the UK chart and gave musical expression to the desire to escape everyday life. Its songs made no apologies for their ambitions. They wanted to live forever and become rock stars, and Liam's voice made it sound possible. By the second album, success no longer had to be imagined. The band was living it. The question now was what to do with it, and where to channel it.
The lineup had changed, too. In the spring of 1995, Tony McCarroll left and Alan White took his place. McCarroll can still be heard on "Some Might Say", recorded before the change, and the difference is easy to hear. His beats are more direct and forceful. White, by contrast, adds fills and accents that soften the playing. Listen to "Wonderwall", for example, and you can hear how he maintains the rhythm without trampling over the acoustic guitar.
Most of the work on the album took place at "Rockfield" in Wales during May and June 1995, with Noel and Owen Morris sharing production duties. Unlike the lengthy and complicated process behind the debut, most of these sessions moved quickly. Morris built the songs in layers. Noel's acoustic guitar and guide vocal provided the framework, with drums, bass, guitars, and vocals added on top. This approach preserved the rock momentum while expanding the arrangements without making them cumbersome.
But the speed of the work did not necessarily mean that relations were relaxed. During one incident, Liam brought people he had met at the pub into the studio while Noel was trying to work on the songs. The confrontation turned violent, Noel left, and recording stopped for a while. This is one of the most interesting contradictions in this band, and in this album in particular. Two people who could barely get along in the same room created enduring songs about needing someone who understands you. You can hear that contradiction even in the meeting of Liam's rough voice and Noel's gentle harmonies.
Noel still draws on his love of British pop and rock from the 1960s and 1970s, but here he gives those influences more room within the arrangements. A piano can comfortably carry an entire song, the Mellotron adds a darker color, and Noel's high voice completes the vocal harmonies beautifully. Above all, this album benefits enormously from its varied arrangements, something especially clear in the stunning closing track, "Champagne Supernova".
The album opens with "Hello", beginning with a brief, quiet acoustic passage before the guitars arrive at full force. Liam sounds as though he has come to remind everyone who is in charge, but beneath the provocation is an awareness that life will never be the same again. The chorus incorporates part of "Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again", which is why Gary Glitter and Mike Leander also receive songwriting credits. It is a short, rough, effective opener, continuing the debut's electrifying energy while signaling that the band is already somewhere else.
Immediately afterward comes "Roll with It", maintaining the momentum with a simple riff, a steady beat, and a chorus you can join on the first listen. Its message is direct: do not let the pressure and noise around you hold you back; keep going your own way. It is not among the most complex or moving "Oasis" songs, but the pleasure of playing is infectious. In retrospect, it is strange to think that this particular song carried the entire weight of the "Battle of Britpop".
On August 14, 1995, "Roll with It" and "Blur"'s "Country House" were released on the same day. The press turned the competition between the singles into a battle between north and south, working class and middle class, and two visions of British music. "Blur" won that week, but the comparison between "The Great Escape" and the "Oasis" album turned out to be a different story. The choruses coming next would take the audience far beyond the confines of that British rivalry.
By the third track, we reach "Wonderwall", and the album changes direction. The acoustic guitar chords leave notes hanging in the air even as the harmony changes beneath them. White plays with relative delicacy, while Bonehead uses the Mellotron to add a cello-like sound, deepening the sadness without pushing the song into melodrama. Liam retains his familiar roughness, but the drawn-out syllables and the audible strain in his voice are undoubtedly the extra ingredient that made it such a huge hit.
The lyrics of "Wonderwall" look to another person for hope and salvation. Noel initially connected the song to his partner Meg Mathews, then later said it concerned an imaginary figure who would save someone from themselves. The title came from George Harrison's "Wonderwall Music", but the song's power lies in the way the singing, melody, and arrangement make that plea sound personal. Noel let Liam choose between this song and "Don't Look Back in Anger". Liam chose this one, and Noel sang the other.
The piano opening of "Don't Look Back in Anger" immediately recalls John Lennon's "Imagine". The borrowing is obvious, but Noel certainly does not stop there. Drums and guitars join in, and the melody gradually climbs toward the chorus. His voice is thinner and gentler than Liam's, making the decision to let him take the lead especially successful here.
Even the name Sally, now inseparable from "Don't Look Back in Anger", came about when Liam thought he heard Noel singing it, and Noel adopted the suggestion. But the truly important story unfolded long after the recording. In 2017, following the Manchester attack, the song became an expression of comfort and solidarity in the city. Suddenly, it was clear how far it had traveled from the studio and the band that created it.
"Hey Now!" also exposes the album's limitations. It has a good melody, heavy playing, and a convincing sense of time slipping away too quickly, but it repeats itself too much. After the two songs preceding it, the drop in tension is hard to miss. Still, Liam's singing and the guitars stretching out behind him give it an interesting weariness, almost the opposite of the triumphant joy of "Roll with It".
The first excerpt from "The Swamp Song", originally untitled, interrupts the sequence with a brief blues jam. The second excerpt appears near the end. Paul Weller contributed guitar and harmonica to both. These are not songs that call for lyrical analysis, but rough interludes within a melodic album, reminding us that behind the radio hits is still a band that enjoys jamming together.
"Some Might Say" brings the rough guitars back at full force. Released on April 24, 1995, it became the band's first UK number-one single. The ringing riff, piano, and McCarroll's direct drumming connect it to the debut, but the chorus already reveals how the band had changed.
"Cast No Shadow" offers a good answer to anyone who thinks the album rests solely on its singles. Noel dedicated it to Richard Ashcroft, singer of "The Verve", writing about a man struggling under the weight of the things he wants to say. Here, the brothers' harmonies are the heart of the arrangement. Liam sings in a relatively low, restrained voice, while Noel rises above him and adds tension. Acoustic guitars and drums hold the song together. It needs neither a big solo nor an eruption to work.
After "Cast No Shadow", the lightness of "She's Electric" is welcome. Liam tells the story of a girl and her complicated family, sounding momentarily amused by his own tale. The melody is bouncy, the harmonies playful, and the arrangement full of affection for older British pop.
The title track, "Morning Glory", brings back the noise all at once: a helicopter, a sharp guitar riff, and drums that refuse to let the playing settle. Liam almost spits out the words, while references to a mirror and a razor blade connect that energy to cocaine and long nights. The guitars pile up on one another, and the song sounds like a morning when nobody has gone to bed yet.
The second excerpt from "The Swamp Song" follows the title track. Like the first, it was left untitled on the original track listing. The guitars and harmonica briefly return us to the blues jam before the timeless song that closes the album.
The waves opening "Champagne Supernova" take us into a completely different atmosphere. The guitars enter slowly, and Liam begins to sing with almost none of the effort heard on the title track. Over more than seven minutes, the arrangement grows in volume and density, building toward Paul Weller's lead guitar and backing vocals before settling down again. It is a long, epic ending, hardly typical of British Britpop at the time, yet that is precisely where its greatness lies.
Those who knew the album on vinyl also found "Bonehead's Bank Holiday", a track absent from the standard CD edition. It is a comic song about a holiday, with Noel on lead vocals and a relaxed atmosphere.
The cover also became inseparable from the album's identity. Michael Spencer Jones photographed it on "Berwick Street" in London's Soho as part of Brian Cannon's design. The two people passing each other are Cannon and DJ Sean Rowley. Morris can also be spotted in the background, holding the master tape box in front of his face. None of the band members appears in the photograph. The street, known for its record shops, connects the album to the everyday world its listeners came from.
On release, the album shot to number one in Britain, eventually spending ten weeks at the top. In the United States, it reached number four on the "Billboard 200", while "Wonderwall" climbed to number eight on the singles chart. According to the band's official website, the album has sold 22 million copies worldwide. Initial reviews were not uniformly enthusiastic, but the audience embraced it with an intensity that was difficult to dispute. In 1996, it won British Album of the Year at the "BRIT Awards", and by August that year the band was playing to around 250,000 people over two nights at "Knebworth".
On July 22, 2026, "Official Charts" announced that "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" was the biggest studio album in UK chart history based on combined sales and streaming, with 6.2 million chart units. This is a combined figure, not the number of physical copies sold.
The numbers explain the scale of the success, but to understand why the album has stayed with us, it is worth returning to the brothers' voices. Noel wrote some of his finest melodies here, and Liam sang them as though every word affected him personally. This is an album by a band that knew how to broaden its horizons without losing its character or identity. It made them enormous, but the moments when they allow themselves to sound smaller are precisely what make it worth returning to.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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