Oasis – Morning Glory: A Classic Album Under Review
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Film: B
This
installment of the Under Review
series dragged up more than a few memories for me. When Oasis first hit the radio waves here in
America, first with their brilliant debut Definitely
Maybe, I remember sitting in front the stereo for hours waiting for “Live Forever” and “Supersonic” to come on the radio so that I could tape them. Then Oasis released (What’s the Story?) Morning Glory. I didn’t have to sit around waiting to tape
these songs (my mother was kind enough to buy the album a week or so after its
release this time) though, had that not been the case, I probably would have
had to have waited all of ten minutes to hear one of their tunes.
Oasis
seemed to be the biggest and, furthermore, the coolest band in the world. For the next few years, Oasis was everywhere.
I remember some asking, “What’s the name of that song? You know, that
song?” “Wonderwall?” “Yea! God,
I love that song.” I think everyone
loved that song and pretty much all the others, too. And it wasn’t just young
kids; literally, everyone (even my mother) loved the band. In this documentary they say, statistically,
if you were walking down the street, you were walking by someone who owned a
copy of Morning Glory.
More than
any other band, I think Oasis were the last great rock ‘n roll giant coming
from the tradition of the immortal 60s and 70s rock bands. At a time when indie music broke, they were The
Beatles and Stones of my generation. Even
more than Nirvana, Oasis were the only band that could be played non-stop on
the radio, do huge sold-out arena shows, act like proper rock stars, still have
underground appeal, and be loved by everybody.
Anyone
who is a fan of Oasis or the Under
Review series will find this DVD enjoyable. The film pieces together bits of live footage,
photos, and interviews with the band, friends, and critics to give an
interesting look into the history, the impact, and the legacy of the band and
the record. This being a British
production, I found their perspective to be particularly valuable; looking at
things such as the political implications of the band which, in the UK,
represented for many the working class section of English society and a new,
youth focused political movement that was brewing in the mid-90’s.
The 1.33
X 1 picture comes from a professional PAL video source and comes with the usual
detail limits, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple at best. Extras contributor bios, the usual impossible
quiz, and an amazing radio interview with Blur and Oasis.
- Jarrod DeArmitt
