Definitely Maybe

Limited Edition Japanese pressing of their debut album, originally released in 1994, comes housed in a miniature LP sleeve. 11 tracks including 'Live Forever', 'Supersonic' and 'Cigarettes And Alcohol'. Sony. 2006.

With the swaggering chords of the opening "Rock'N'Roll Star," Oasis announced that big, brash Brit rock was here to stay--at least for a few years. They wore their rock & roll with an angry young sneer, a Mancunian petulance wedded to a vision of cathartic release. Their supersonic two-guitar attack took them "Up in the Sky," where they would "Live Forever" or burn out in a blaze of alcoholic glory. Noel Gallagher's songs weren't subtle--or shy of overt plagiarism--but, spat out in the Lennonesque snarl of little brother Liam, they took on a venomous power that had millions of young Brits taking them at their own arrogant word. In the U.S., meanwhile, the response was more Maybe than Definitely. --Barney Hoskyns