​'(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' Was Released 22 Years Ago And It's Still One Of The Best Albums Ever

I'm in a kitchen - it's one of those primary school birthday parties, the ones where the mums and dads sit around smoking and talking, and the kids run between the adults legs after drinking too much Coke.

Blaring through the radio comes Wonderwall. For the last year it's been there, inescapable, with those words everybody knows - even me, aged five or six years old - the soundtrack to our collective memories: to every birthday party, every wedding, every night out.

There are great albums and then there are great albums, ones that go beyond greatness in just a musical sense to define cultural moments. Definitely Maybe - at the time the fastest selling debut in British history - had been released to widespread critical acclaim, but when Noel Gallagher sat down to write the follow-up he set out to do more than that.

Credit: A24/Entertainment One

Where their first album had been tunes about dreaming of escaping your hometown to become something more - now he would document how it felt once you had achieved your dreams and become a star.

What followed were songs that would come to define the 90s and Britpop as a movement, songs designed to be sung in fields with your arms around your mates - yes, at birthday parties and weddings and at the end of every night out.

Credit: PA Images

The combination of Liam's distinct, drawling Manc vocals and Noel's overdriven solos: all before the cosying up with prime ministers, chat show appearances and Twitter beefs.

As Billboard's Kenneth Partridge puts it: "Every few years, a British guitar band comes along and reminds everyone how bloody great British guitar bands can be.. Morning Glory is a visceral rock n' roll album whose finest bits are plundered wholesale from history and smashed together for maximum effect."

Since its release, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? has sold over 22 million copies worldwide, has appeared on countless lists of the greatest albums in rock history and was named at the Brit awards as the greatest British album since 1980.

And over two decades on from being in that kitchen, I still know all the words.

Featured Image Credit: PA Images​

Topics: Oasis

James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday