Of course, in 1995, this band and album were the saviours of rock and roll.
I didn't like Oasis, and I didn't like the Gallaghers. I found their laddish, thuggish, boorish personae tedious in the extreme. I found a lot of the music derivative, predictable and plodding.
I've been heard to describe Oasis as being like my golf swing - crude, ugly, badly timed, yet occasionally producing a decent result. Yet I still own this album, having picked it up for a quid a few months after the hype had all died down, but I haven't put it on for many years. And, dear reader, being honest, I'm prepared to hate it.
But Hello opens up brightly with a powerful tune, (until that ill-advised Gary Glitter snatch at the end - come on lads, we knew he was a wrong 'un in 1995), followed by Roll With It, feeling more exciting and less plodding than I remember. I'm warming to the album, but what's this? Wonderwall. Just like Robbie Williams' Angels, it's a song forever tainted by hundreds of shit buskers and pissed up karaoke singers, and frankly, it's a tiresome dirge. But Don't Look Back In Anger, despite its wholesale Imagine plagiarism, shows that (with Lennon & McCartney's guidance) can put together a decent, listenable anthem. Hey Now! returns to plodding repetition, only rescued by an interesting chorus and middle. It would be churlish to say that the untitled 45 second instrumental break before Some Might Say is the most exciting thing so far, but it takes us to another plodder. Cast No Shadow is a gentler, well produced song, really enjoyable, certainly superior to the better known, easier played and caterwauled Wonderwall. And for an uplift after that, the jaunty singalong She's Electric works a treat, and Morning Glory, which follows it with a loud guitar burst, into a rocking riff, and another decent song. Nearly there now, another untitled instrumental bit, let's hope it's bringing something blockbusting to finish... it's Champagne Supernova, sadly plodding and trying to sound like a grand anthemic statement. And it bangs on for seven and a half minutes. Sorry lads, not for me.
I may have been harsh with this album, I don't hate it, but it's clear that oasis had something when they were trying to be a rock band, which didn't (to me translate when they got 'serious as artists'. But stuff that is good, is very good. A quid at your local charity shop ( a fate which befalls most albums that sold billions thirty years ago).
3* - It is well crafted and produced, with some nice songs. It never was 'the future of rock and roll'.
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