Don’t look back in anger, eh?
Fifteen years after Liam and Noel Gallagher called it quits, leading to one of music’s messiest breakups, Oasis has begun hinting at a return of sorts. As both brothers and the official band account posted the same graphic on X teasing an announcement on Aug. 27, rumors and reports circulated that the band was eyeing performances in 2025, including a slew of dates at London’s Wembley Stadium.
If the brothers do indeed come together, putting aside decades’ worth of feuding, it would result in one of the most highly anticipated music reunions of all time — something even die-hard Oasis fans never thought could happen after the band split in 2009, just a month after selling out multiple dates at Manchester’s 70,000-capacity Heaton Park.
As fans of the British rock band wait on pins and needles, Variety staffers narrowed down Oasis’ 10 best songs, including stadium singalongs, deep cuts and an inescapable acoustic anthem (you know the one).
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She’s Electric (1995)
“She’s Electric,” a deep cut from “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” encompasses everything that Oasis nuts love about them. It’s unabashedly Beatles-y, down to the nod to “Because” in the closing notes. It’s a sturdy, bar band-friendly rocker, bashed out on jangly guitars that could’ve been strummed in a different era by Don and Phil Everly. It’s all tied together with unabashedly silly wordsmithing a la: “She’s electric / She’s in a family full of eccentrics” and “She’s got a sister / And on the palm of her hand is a blister.” It’s not profound, but it’s a sing-along, snap-along fan favorite. — C.L.
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Go Let It Out (2000)
The band’s fourth record, 2000’s “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants,” is a psychedelia-tinged affair that flirts with the bloat that comes with being the biggest band on the planet. But the album’s first single, “Go Let It Out,” is an all-timer, mashing together a stadium-ready chorus and guitars with ornate instrumentation that adds sonic depth. The sly star of the show is Noel’s creeping Mellotron, in conversation with Liam’s staggering snarl. Although the Gallaghers are prone to self-aggrandizement, Noel was spot-on when he referred to the song as “the closest we came to sounding like a modern-day Beatles.” — W.E.
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Don’t Go Away (1997)
A gorgeous, reflective piece from their 1997 record “Be Here Now,” Liam reaches peak vulnerability with this aching song about wanting more time with a sick parent. Noel’s simple lyrics sting with the certain effects of time, letting go of any cleverness for earnest meditations on the flights that take us to painful places. “Damn my education, I can’t find the words to say / With all the things caught in my mind,” Liam moans, with mournful horns and a string section building his grief into a universal cacophony by the end. — W.E.
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Cigarettes & Alcohol (1994)
A scorching blues-rock anthem about getting after it, “Cigarettes & Alcohol” is an ode to passing the time by ripping darts and drinking booze. But underneath its working-class disenchantment (“Is it worth the aggravation / To find yourself a job when there’s nothing worth working for?”) is a yearning for greatness. “You gotta make it happen,” Liam repeats on the chorus, referring to any number of youthful endeavors — “looking for some action,” ditching a 9-to-5 to become a rock ‘n’ roll star, getting the hell out of Manchester and into the “sunshee-iiine.” On a more basic level, all of us, at some point in our lives, can relate to its down-bad declaration: “All I need are cigarettes and alcohol.” — E.S.
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Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (1994)
In the opening song of their debut album, the Gallagher brothers introduced themselves like this: “Toniiiiight, I’m a rock ‘n’ roll star!” Maybe they were manifesting it; “Definitely Maybe” became the fastest-selling debut album in British history, and Oasis almost immediately became the country’s most important band of the decade. Looking back, the song’s wailing guitar riff sounds almost like a warning siren. A favorite concert closer, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’s” blistering guitars and mouth-stretching Liam-isms see Oasis at its most fun: “I live my life in the citaaayyy … I need some time in the sunshee-iiine!” And, with its titular proclamation, it taps into the unspoken desires of every music fan, if only for five minutes. — E.S.
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Acquiesce (1995)
The Gallaghers trade off vocal duties on this rollicking 1995 B-side that became a fan favorite. Although Noel brings the piss and vinegar with his guitar, he also mans the soaring and reflective vocals on the chorus, with lyrics reading like a grudging acknowledgment of the brothers’ bond (“Because we need each other / We believe in one another”). While Noel predictably called this fan theory “total fucking bullshit,” Liam’s sneering melts perfectly into his brother’s crisp tone in a way that proves that, despite all the fights, these two really do need each other. — W.E.
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Wonderwall (1995)
No acoustic guitar or London pub is safe from “Wonderwall,” one of Oasis’ flagship tracks. Named after the 1968 film “Wonderwall — From Psychedelia to Surrealism,” which featured a soundtrack from George Harrison, “Wonderwall” is the type of song that builds towards a conclusion that never comes. Liam Gallagher sings his brother Noel’s lyrics with clarity and a bit of hopefulness, that there’s an answer to some form of despair, as the instruments swell around him. A resolution never arrives, but the sentiment lingers as the song crashes out. — S.H.
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Don’t Look Back in Anger (1995)
Noel might have given Liam “I said maaaybaaayyy,” but he saved the better chorus for himself with “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” which — sorry, “Wonderwall” — is the band’s best sing-along anthem. Its title references the famous John Osborne play, and its piano opening cribs John Lennon’s “Imagine,” a bold move from someone who once boasted Oasis was “bigger” than the Beatles (Noel later retracted that comment, saying he was “high” when he said it). A melancholy, arena-sized rejection of regret, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” builds up to one of rock music’s biggest refrains: “Sooo, Sally can wait!” It was also the first Oasis single to feature Noel’s vocals, proving that Liam wasn’t the only Gallagher capable of carrying a No. 1 hit. — E.S.
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Supersonic (1994)
The similarities between Oasis and AC/DC may not be obvious — and would probably bring forth a shower of expletives from the Gallagher brothers — but on many songs the template is the same: reptile-brain-simple chord progressions and lyrics, but with a melodic uplift on the chorus that transports the song somewhere else. It’s a fusion of rock and pop that manages to be tough and pretty at the same time, and case in point is this first single from their first album, “Definitely Maybe,” which got the ball rolling in April of 1994. — J.A.
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Champagne Supernova (1995)
For all his fighting words, Noel Gallagher has always paid respect to his forebears, and this song — the closing track on what many feel is the band’s best album, “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” — not only showed a depth and maturity to his songwriting that wasn’t as obvious earlier, it features some slashing guitar work from Paul Weller, whose work with the Jam in the late ‘70s-early ‘80s was a pivotal influence on Oasis. — J.A.
