Oasis And The Gallaghers: Every Album Ranked!

Words: Andrew Perry/Chris Catchpole

"Sometimes being a brother,” American children’s author Marc Brown famously wrote, “is even better than being a superhero.” Sibling rivalry has certainly driven the Gallagher brothers to extraordinary heights, both together within the uneasy alliance of Oasis, and thereafter in their solo capacities since the band split in 2009.

What they shared while growing up in suburban Burnage, south Manchester, was a passion for two rock idols, The Beatles and the Sex Pistols. After much in-studio huffing, puffing and pugilism, 1994’s Oasis debut, Definitely Maybe, delivered a confident amalgam of those two influences, and almost single-handedly reinstated home-grown rock in the British pop charts. For the next couple of albums, Noel Gallagher drew on a stockpile of anthems composed pre-fame, but the problems started thereafter, when he felt increasingly straitjacketed by the imperative to write for stadiums. Successive albums lacked creative movement and, increasingly, zip.

For fans, the bust-up in Paris which terminated Oasis in August ’09 has brought the benefit that each made progressively more livelier, interesting music alone. Initially, it appeared that Noel held all the cards, as the songwriter extraordinaire breezily cast off his shackles to embrace disco beats and Laurel Canyon vibes, while Liam’s neo-Oasis efforts with Beady Eye foundered. When Liam Gallagher began trading under his own name, with help from high-end co-writers, the tables turned.

Since then it's been more of an even fight and now, finally, the band - or Liam and Noel at least - have announced that next year they will reform for a string of stadium dates in the UK and Ireland. Whether another Oasis album will follow remains to be seen but for now here's MOJO's full rundown of every Oasis, Liam, Noel and Beady Eye album ranked from worst to best

18.

Beady Eye

BE

Columbia, 2013

Credit where credit is due. After 2011’s Different Gear, Still Speeding showed the remaining members of Oasis could hold their own after the departure of their chief creative force, Liam, Gem Archer, Andy Bell and drummer Chris Sharrock could have quite easily stuck out another album of Oasis-lite. Instead, they hooked up with TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek for what might be the most out-there sounding record any member of Oasis has been involved in. When it works – the Mexican standoff of opener Flick Of The Finger, Face In The Crowd’s cinematic psych rock - the gamble pays off, but largely, for all its inventive sonic atmospherics, BE highlighted that Beady Eye simply didn’t have the songs.

17.

Liam Gallagher

C’Mon You Know

Warner Bros, 2022

By the time of C’Mon You Know’s release, Liam Gallagher’s first two solo albums and willingness to deliver Oasis songs (and songs that sounded like Oasis songs) to new generations of fans sniffily dubbed “parka monkeys” by his older brother had placed him firmly on top in the post-Oasis pecking order. Quite why he decided to leave that behind for an album of groove-based songs that largely eschewed guitars remains to be seen. Even Liam himself grumbled about the change of direction in interviews. “It’s a bit odd this record,” he told Apple Music. “There’s not a lot of guitars on it, which is upsetting me.” Despite the calibre of a lot of the material, he sounds uncharacteristically unsure and at times simply disinterested in the new setting.

16.

Different Gear, Still Speeding

Beady Eye/Dangerbird, 2011

Following Oasis’s split, it spoke volumes that, within weeks, Liam had announced a new band alongside the other three members (guitarist Gem Archer, bassist Andy Bell and final-tour drummer Chris Sharrock), leaving Noel to go it alone. By the time Different Gear… emerged, its sense of ‘continuity Oasis’ felt mistimed – quite simply, the world wasn’t ready to welcome Oasis back yet, in any guise. Despite the large Noel-shaped hole in the songwriting, Beady Eye’s debut had plenty in its favour, delivering flagrant Lennonisms (The Roller), Who-esque thrills (titled Beatles And Stones, oddly), and piano-trashing rock’n’roll (Bring The Light) with a vitality that bespoke years of repression under the old regime.

15.

Oasis

Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants

Big Brother, 2000

When it arrived three years after the perceived folly of Be Here Now, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants was meant to herald a new creative dawn for Oasis – now without Bonehead and Guigsy. Beta Band-cribbing lead single Go Let It Out certainly suggested as much, as did hammering psych rock instrumental opener Fuckin’ In The Bushes, which quite rightly became the band’s on-stage walk on music from there on in. After that though, Oasis’ fourth album quickly falls off a cliff. Liam’s first stab at songwriting, the mawkish Little James, was widely derided, but not much else here fares any better (Noel’s “I can see a liar, sitting by the fire” on I Can See A Liar isn’t exactly Smokey Robinson, either). Strangely, ELO-like closer Roll It Over was largely overlooked by the group on subsequent live outings despite being one of the best things here by some stretch.

14.

Oasis

Dig Out Your Soul

Big Brother, 2008

It would soon all end with a smashed guitar and a dashed plum, but with hindsight does Oasis’ last (for now?) album sound like a band at the end of their road? Yes and no. Hammering first single The Shock Of The Lightening, Liam’s Lennon-esque I’m Outta Time and Falling Down, later explored to mind-bending effect by Amorphous Androgynous, all suggest Oasis still had plenty of creative fire in their bellies, but elsewhere you can’t shake off the feeling of a group running out of both puff and ideas. Tellingly, by the time the band played their last show less than a year after the album’s release only three songs from Dig Out Your Soul were in the set list.

13.

Liam Gallagher

As You Were

Warner Bros, 2017

Even while Beady Eye was failing commercially, it was Noel who advised, with a winner’s smirking disinterest, that his younger brother should go solo, with “his name in lights” – an obvious reference to late-’60s Elvis. The parallel wouldn’t be irrelevant when Liam ultimately did so two years later. With the push of a major label behind him, a raft of elite-class songwriters helped sculpt material that essentially celebrated Liamness. Thus, while Noel’s solo records sought routes away from Oasis-style rabble-rousing, As You Were simply gloried in it (Wall Of Glass; Greedy Soul), while also, on For What It’s Worth, mining the singer’s troubled private life with winning vulnerability.

12.

Liam Gallagher

Why Me? Why Not

Warner Bros, 2019

After Beady Eye fizzled out, 2017’s As You Were put Liam back on first principles – snarling rock and roll with a side order Lennon-esque ballads – and was a resounding success. The tables now turned in his favour, for his next move the younger Gallagher wisely opted to double down on that record’s wellspring of all things Liam. Unlike its predecessor, every song on Why Me, Why Not? is a co-write, with Liam focusing his attention instead on what he does best: being the greatest rock and roll singer of his generation. True, nothing here matches the likes of Live Forever or Rock ‘N’ Roll Star, but it oozes the confidence and swagger that alchemised Oasis’ greatness.

11.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Chasing Yesterday

Sour Mash, 2015

On release of his second solo record, Noel recalled how he and Gem Archer would reflect on critiques of late-Oasis stodginess, wondering, “What do they expect – space-jazz?” This, clearly, was to prepare the troops for Chasing Yesterday’s expansion on solo Noel’s first freedoms, to include sax solos (hear blissful, West Coast-ish opener Riverman) and two revised outtakes from a shelved collaboration with cosmic ’90s dance troupe Amorphous Androgynous. Themes of middle-aged ravers regaining the old magic, and an appearance by Johnny Marr on wonderfully dreamy disco-pumping closer Ballad Of The Mighty I, sealed another chart-topping victory.

10.

Liam Gallagher John Squire

Liam Gallagher John Squire

Warner Bros, 2024

Two Manchester icons estranged from their creative partners, pairing the voice of Oasis with the guitar wizardry and tumbling melodies of The Stone Roses sounds like such a good idea on paper it seems strange no one thought of it sooner. Rumours persisted that the songs that made up Liam Gallagher and John Squire’s collaboration had been written for a third Stone Roses album that never was, but in truth Liam is a far better fit for the spangled psych pop on the likes of Mars To Liverpool and Just Another Rainbow than Ian Brown. Whether or not they ever make another one, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable diversion and probably more fun than a Brown/Noel Gallagher link up would be.

9.

Oasis

Be Here Now

Creation, 1997

Conventional wisdom has it that Oasis’ third album was the moment the Gallaghers irreparably George Bested it. An overblown, coke-addled folly that would prove to be Britpop’s Altamont. Yes, the album’s 72 minutes are frequently weighed down by lumpen bridges and middle eights, endless guitar overdubs and laboured arrangements (All Around The World couldn’t be any longer if it tried – and that’s before it reappears in ‘reprise’ form), but strip back the production bluster (something Noel Gallagher largely puts down to mixing the record while high on cocaine) and some of the band’s finest songs of the era are hiding underneath the noise and confusion.

8.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Sour Mash, 2011

Even on first listen, Noel’s solo debut felt like a liberation. Swapping Oasis’s stampede of multitracked guitars for a strummed acoustic, and his strained bark for a more natural, choirboy-esque vocal purity, …High Flying Birds birthed a sound that played to his own strengths (thoughtful, sophisticated), rather than Liam’s (headlong). Everybody’s On The Run and If I Had A Gun… saw him take his foot off the gas to wonder at the world, while proven pop smarts resurfaced in Kinksian whimsy (Dream On) and piano-house-like euphoria (AKA…What A Life!). Britpop’s songwriting master had got his edge back.

7.

Oasis

Heathen Chemistry

Big Brother, 2002

Having booted out all three of Liam’s original bandmates from The Rain and supplanted them with handpicked indie-rock pros, for Heathen Chemistry, Noel opened the door to others writing songs. Gem Archer’s Hung In A Bad Place and, particularly, Liam’s Songbird – a breezy love letter to his then-fiancée Nicole Appleton – brought fresh energy, while Noel’s perennial England-out-of-the-World Cup weepie Stop Crying Your Heart Out topped off a promising new blend. Oasis Mk2 might not ever match the era-defining glories of their earlier incarnations, but Heathen Chemistry has aged remarkably well.

6.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Who Built The Moon?

Sour Mash, 2017

Following his team-up with The Chemical Brothers on ’96’s Setting Sun, Noel had experimented with ‘going dance’ in Oasis circa ’03-04 via abortive sessions with Death In Vegas, then solo with Amorphous Androgynous. He doubtless felt pressure to modernise, and things eased in that direction with 2017’s team-up with Belfast producer/movie soundtracker David Holmes. WBTM upheld solo Noel’s sense of casting off shackles, echoing New Order, Phil Spector and The Prodigy, and, in Holy Mountain’s use of the glam-y horn riff from Bryan Ferry’s Let’s Stick Together, reconnecting with early Oasis’ ‘genius steals’ mentality.

5.

Oasis

Don’t Believe The Truth

Big Brother, 2005

After abandoning sessions with Death In Vegas’ Richard Fearless, Oasis turned to producer Dave Sardy for what might be their leanest, meanest and most chaff-free set of songs since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. With Liam’s songwriting having progressed past the nursery rhyming of Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants’ Little James, Oasis now boasted four match-fit songwriters and a pool of 60 songs were whittled down to a punchy eleven, the likes of Lyla, The Importance Of Being Idle and Liam’s bolshy The Meaning Of Soul pivoting nimbly round around a mid-60s axis of The Beatles, Stones and The Kinks. Listening to the renewed lease of life here, it’s hard to conceive that Oasis only had one more album in them.

4.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds

Council Skies

Sour Mash, 2023

2017’s Who Built The Moon? and subsequent EPs occasionally felt like Noel Gallagher was trying to prove a point. That, now into his 50s, he could make music that was well outside of the indie rock comfort zone he’d spent the previous two decades building for himself. Last year’s Council Skies, however, found him back doing what he does best, and arguably doing it better than at any time since the mid-'90s. Even Liam conceded that Dead To The World was up there with his best (“how can such a mean-spirited little man write such a beautiful song?” he wrote on Twitter) and the likes of The Cure-indebted Pretty Boy and Open The Door, See What You Find’s psychedelic soul splurge showed he could still push his songwriting in front of new musical backdrops without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

3.

Oasis

The Masterplan

Creation, 1998

A central plank to Oasis’s mid-’90s dominance dictated that Noel’s songbook was so stuffed with classics, the extra tracks on singles packed more chart-topping potential than any other band’s A-sides. Here, as a stopgap after their 1996 Knebworth mega-gig and Be Here Now, they reinforced the point: The Masterplan trounces all later Oasis LPs, too. Three cuts – opening brotherly-solidarity duet Acquiesce, bittersweet soul-searcher Half The World Away, and the orchestral title track – really were Number 1s that slipped the net. Others, like acoustic tearjerker Talk Tonight, clearly weren’t, but their variety of mood and instrumentation make a fine companion to the Oasis-in-overdrive ‘proper’ LPs.

2.

Oasis

(What’s The Story) Morning Glory

Creation, 1995

It’s hard to overplay the breathless, pre-social media phenomenon of Oasis through 1994-95, and how their ascent was mirrored in their second LP’s expansion on the debut’s raw materials. Most importantly, in Wonderwall Morning Glory had the heartstring-tugging megahit to facilitate the band’s crossover worldwide. At every turn there was growth, from Noel’s primetime vocal debut on the anthemic Don’t Look Back In Anger, to Champagne Supernova’s Quadrophenia-on-steroids finale. Quite how much was ‘held back’ for LP2 by career mastermind Noel is still questionable, but these mighty choruses would soon resound around Earls Court, Maine Road and beyond.

1.

Oasis

Definitely Maybe

Creation, 1994

Their second album may have become the UK’s third biggest-selling studio long-player of all time, but with every passing year this debut becomes more established as an unassailable career zenith. Often plausibly compared with Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, this album’s cultural impact was in some ways as far-reaching (if not politically), as it reignited British rock. It also took endless tinkering mix-wise to finesse Noel’s beefed-up guitars, but there was a purity and purpose to his songs on Definitely Maybe that can never be repeated. From Live Forever’s gutter-level stargazing and Slide Away’s desperation to Rock’N’Roll Star’s magical self-fulfilling prophecy, it simply cannot be bettered.

Picture: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images