Oasis album and solo output preference poll (Read 1,014 times)

[Lundblad]

Now that the Oasis solo era is (hopefully) at an end I want to do this poll.

I find it interesting to see if there is any correlation between preferences among the Oasis albums and preferences between the Gallagher brothers' solo outputs.

So please tell me what your favourite Oasis album is, AND which brother's musical solo output your prefer.

I only included the 90s albums to keep it simple, my assumption is that very few people regard any of the other four as their favourite Oasis album.

[His Royal Noelness]

Definitely Maybe and Noel.

I will listen to anything Noel puts out. I am only interested in Liam Gallagher singing songs written by Noel. (Turn Up the Sun and To Be Where There’s Life being the notable exceptions)

[oasisserbia]

DM and WTSMG are equal and perfect albums in their genre. If a choice has to be made, DM always gets the edge because it's a better album album, if you know what I mean. WTSMG is more like a greatest hits. But then again, who’s to say that makes it any less valuable?

Still, let's go with DM and not complicate things 😎

And I choose Noel’s solo career - it's far more interesting. Liam brings that excitement with him but the guy has literally released the same album three times. All three of his solo albums are essentially the same and one album.

This led me to getting so bored that this album with John Squire is the first and only album made by a Gallagher that I haven’t even listened to.

So, DM is my fav album AND I prefer Noel's solo output.

[mancraider]

'This led me to getting so bored that this album with John Squire is the first and only album made by a Gallagher that I haven’t even listened to.'


That's a shame because I'm a big fan of Liam but I think it's better than all his solo efforts.

[bringitondown77]

DM and WTSMG are almost tied as best Oasis albums, but I'd say Morning Glory maybe just has the edge for me personally.

As for solo output, Noel's trounces Liam's. Noel is a bonafide song writer and you can see it with some of the great stuff he has churned out for the High Flying Birds. Liam is a brilliant rock singer, but he requires a lot of songwriting help and the songs themselves are not up to the standard of Noel's solo stuff in my opinion.

[Diamond in The Dark]

The best Oasis album for me is Definitely Maybe. The album I'm particularly fond of is Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants. The thing that made me a fan of Oasis over any other band is LIAM GALLAGHER.
Noel is the best songwriter in Oasis but his solo career has never really thrilled me.
If it hadn't been for Liam on stage and on the records I would never have become a huge fan of the band.
So I vote DM and Liam solo.

[lochlomond96]

It's difficult to answer without taking in to account what you mean by solo output, if you mean purely songwriting then it's a bit of an unfair comparison to make. Noel is one of the greatest songwriters of the last 30 years while Liam, by his own admission, just has a dabble with it. I always find that comparison a rather unfair one.

If based on songwriting alone then DM and Noel by a country mile.

[defmaybe00]

WTSMG and Noel

[Lundblad]

Sept 3, 2024 5:54:57 GMT -5 lochlomond96 said:

It's difficult to answer without taking in to account what you mean by solo output, if you mean purely songwriting then it's a bit of an unfair comparison to make. Noel is one of the greatest songwriters of the last 30 years while Liam, by his own admission, just has a dabble with it. I always find that comparison a rather unfair one.

If based on songwriting alone then DM and Noel by a country mile.

Maybe my language skills were limited here, I was not referring to only the actual song-writing, but their respective albums as a whole.

[garys]

DM for me and I was so happy when As You Were was released along with Liam's renaissance that I'm sentimentally given the solo edge to Liam. Plus some of his live shows since have been incredible and keeping the Oasis spirit alive. TRNSMT 2018, O2 Ritz 2019,2021 TRNSMT & Reading and of course Knebworth.

[joladella]

BHN & Liam. Liam might have saved my life with As you were and I enjoyed every album and live show. I enjoyed Noel's, too, but it's not the same.

[ChampagneHypernova]

Sept 3, 2024 6:12:18 GMT -5 The Escapist said:

Sept 3, 2024 5:33:16 GMT -5 bringitondown77 said:

DM and WTSMG are almost tied as best Oasis albums, but I'd say Morning Glory maybe just has the edge for me personally.

As for solo output, Noel's trounces Liam's. Noel is a bonafide song writer and you can see it with some of the great stuff he has churned out for the High Flying Birds. Liam is a brilliant rock singer, but he requires a lot of songwriting help and the songs themselves are not up to the standard of Noel's solo stuff in my opinion.

Yep.

I agree with all this. And that doesn't mean I don't like Liam's solo efforts. There's some great songs and his albums are solid. The album with John Squire is excellent 👍

[GlastoEls]

Morning Glory and Liam.

Why Liam? (Why Not?). But the reason is exactly as Noel told John Robb - the edge, or the ten shots of tequila on a Friday night. HFB are great, but something different again. Half a Guinness on a Tuesday!

[dylanesquee]

I voted BHN and Noel, which I feel is a less common combo; but while I absolutely adore DM and WTSMG and I think they're the best Oasis albums, my personal favourites have always been BHN and SOTSOG. As for solo careers it's such an easy question for me, Noel has more variety and I just prefer him, both in and out of oasis. Chasing Yesterday in my opinion is the best post-Oasis album out of all the ones they both have released!

[Just Call Me The Roller]

WTSMG is my favourite album EVER (for me, it's the perfect pop album, the one generations of records from Abbey Road to Thriller tried to be) and I find it surprising that it's actually leading the poll right now as I always had the perception that DM was the favourite among fans (fair enough!).

I'll also have Liam over Noel. Not only Liam has been the record-keeper of the live Oasis experience for the last 7 years, his solo work comes to me as fresher and more intriguing. Stephen Thomas Erlewine's article on Oasis coming back makes a compelling argument:

sterlewine.substack.com/p/oasis-reunites

Liam eventually started writing songs—by 2003, his "Songbird" wound up as a Top Ten British hit in 2003, a highlight from Heathen Times, an album that found Noel receding from the spotlight—but at Oasis's peak, he was seen as little more than a vessel for Noel's tunes, a construction that inevitably favors the composer. Time has suggested that Liam's gift may be rarer than Noel's. The latter has produced a handsome body of work with his High Flying Birds but their records tend to be stuffy, prizing classicism over the electric snap of pop. Liam, who rarely talked about music in interviews if it wasn't the Beatles, possesses a sharper ear for contemporary mores, working with TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek on the final Beady Eye album, then collaborating with Greg Kurstin, Andrew Wyatt, Ezra Koenig and Dave Grohl on his solo records.

There's also the fact that Liam Gallagher is the rare rock singer whose power derives from the grain on his voice, not his enthusiasm or range. At the height of Oasis's reign, he never exerted himself, singing with his hands pinned behind his back or banging on a tambourine. His choices may not have been lively but they were charismatic: his lack of movement provided a center of gravity for Oasis to orbit along with their audience. His stillness and controlled range also suggests this modern revival of Oasis may have musical merit. Recent years have suggested that Liam no longer indulges in the excesses that forced him to be a spectator during Oasis's MTV Unplugged set: he's sharp, controlled and self-effacing, nimble enough to seem lithe but never bothering with fads.

[settingson]

Sept 3, 2024 5:02:35 GMT -5 His Royal Noelness said:

Definitely Maybe and Noel.

I will listen to anything Noel puts out. I am only interested in Liam Gallagher singing songs written by Noel. (Turn Up the Sun and To Be Where There’s Life being the notable exceptions)

Pretty much this, although I'd add a couple more of Liam's Oasis songs in there.

[Beady’s Here Now]

DM is my favorite, with preferring Noel’s output.

[defmaybe00]

Sept 3, 2024 6:28:47 GMT -5 defmaybe00 said:

WTSMG and Noel

Expanding on this: I love DM almost as much as WTSMG, I even feel there's more to connect with lyrically speaking, but WTSMG is just pop perfection from start to finish. So many hooks, great melodies, big choruses, just hit after hit after hit and that still doesn't take away from the depth certain tracks (Hey Now, Champagne Supernova, Cast No Shadow) can reach. Plus my favourite ever song, which is DLBIA. And some lovely touches here and there, from Alan's jazzy drumming style (something I like a lot in general) to Cast No Shadow's bassline, to the outro of DLBIA itself, some of Noel's best backing vocals etc

As for Noel vs Liam, I've always been more interested in the creative forces behind stuff I like, it's the same for cinema for instance, I tend to watch more auteurs' stuff than directors who don't write. Not to say it's a super-strict rule and I can't enjoy other things of course, I'm not gonna write off Rear Window.

But I'll always be curious about Noel's output as he's up there with the best as a songwriter to me, and I know there will always be 2 or 3 songs on his records that will connect with me the same way Oasis songs did. It's the elements that make up his writing style that I deeply feel and appreciate, even if he doesn't have the same consistency as before.

I like some of Liam's solo stuff, and I love his voice of course, but I'm not as invested in it because I don't rate his songwriting, or his writers' songwriting as much. I will listen, of course, and I'm aware I may find something I like, but it's a different experience.

[emil]

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

and Who Built the Moon

[Lundblad]

Sept 3, 2024 8:08:06 GMT -5 Just Call Me The Roller said:

WTSMG is my favourite album EVER (for me, it's the perfect pop album, the one generations of records from Abbey Road to Thriller tried to be) and I find it surprising that it's actually leading the poll right now as I always had the perception that DM was the favourite among fans (fair enough!).

I'll also have Liam over Noel. Not only Liam has been the record-keeper of the live Oasis experience for the last 7 years, his solo work comes to me as fresher and more intriguing. Stephen Thomas Erlewine's article on Oasis coming back makes a compelling argument:

sterlewine.substack.com/p/oasis-reunites

Liam eventually started writing songs—by 2003, his "Songbird" wound up as a Top Ten British hit in 2003, a highlight from Heathen Times, an album that found Noel receding from the spotlight—but at Oasis's peak, he was seen as little more than a vessel for Noel's tunes, a construction that inevitably favors the composer. Time has suggested that Liam's gift may be rarer than Noel's. The latter has produced a handsome body of work with his High Flying Birds but their records tend to be stuffy, prizing classicism over the electric snap of pop. Liam, who rarely talked about music in interviews if it wasn't the Beatles, possesses a sharper ear for contemporary mores, working with TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek on the final Beady Eye album, then collaborating with Greg Kurstin, Andrew Wyatt, Ezra Koenig and Dave Grohl on his solo records.

There's also the fact that Liam Gallagher is the rare rock singer whose power derives from the grain on his voice, not his enthusiasm or range. At the height of Oasis's reign, he never exerted himself, singing with his hands pinned behind his back or banging on a tambourine. His choices may not have been lively but they were charismatic: his lack of movement provided a center of gravity for Oasis to orbit along with their audience. His stillness and controlled range also suggests this modern revival of Oasis may have musical merit. Recent years have suggested that Liam no longer indulges in the excesses that forced him to be a spectator during Oasis's MTV Unplugged set: he's sharp, controlled and self-effacing, nimble enough to seem lithe but never bothering with fads.

Great article, I love ST Erlewine's writing (except the fact that the rating of BHN in his review allmusic.com has changed from 5,0 to 3,5, without the text of the review having been changed).

I especially liked this part:

Oasis may be forever identified with youth, a connection hammered home by this 30th Anniversary edition of Definitely Maybe, an album where the group seems intent to outrun their hometown. Definitely Maybe is littered with images of escape and freedom, a reflection of Noel Gallagher's decision to scuttle his vulnerable moments to the B-sides. These songs are absent on the new reissue—there are no previously released non-LP tracks, presumably because they all appeared on previous commemorative editions—but "D'Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman?," "Take Me Away" and "Fade Away" are littered with tarnished dreams and faded aspirations, emotions that certainly were familiar to a Noel Gallagher facing his thirtieth birthday but gain more resonance now that he and Liam are on the other side of fifty. Those songs aren't likely to be featured on the setlist for Oasis '25 but they're the ones that suggest to me that this reunion is something more than a cash grab: underneath their roar and swagger, Oasis always pulsated to the unpredictable rhythms of a human heart.

<3<3<3

[PepsiNebula]

What if my favorite album is DOYS?? Taking the piss, but only a tiny bit. Most days WTSMG and DOYS are neck and neck for me.

I said Noel for solo output, as I think I've listened to his albums more. However, if we're including performances, Liam's worlds above Noel in that department based on the ones I've been to.

[oasisgoletitout]

Sept 3, 2024 4:28:20 GMT -5 Lundblad said:

Now that the Oasis solo era is (hopefully) at an end I want to do this poll.

I find it interesting to see if there is any correlation between preferences among the Oasis albums and preferences between the Gallagher brothers' solo outputs.

So please tell me what your favourite Oasis album is, AND which brother's musical solo output your prefer.

I only included the 90s albums to keep it simple, my assumption is that very few people regard any of the other four as their favourite Oasis album.

I have seen people online who have said Dig Out Your Soul is their favorite one. For me, WTSMG is my all time favorite album, and I much prefer Noel’s solo work (though I’ve listened to both of their solo albums a good amount).

[jeffrey]

Definitely Maybe is probably my favorite album ever. I’m drawn to the more raw, aggressive nature of it and I much prefer Liam for basically the same reasons. My life changed forever after watching him swagger onto the stage for the first time live with that ineffable aura/charisma/magnetism. Have probably seen over 300 bands/artists and nobody has ever come close to displaying that “thing” he has.

[Lundblad]

My choice is BHN and Liam.

WTSMG has the best songs, and I always have a hard time choosing between WTSMG and BHN, but I usually have most affection for BHN. It is so special. A unique listening experience, I don't know anything like it – and it would be very hard to recreate.

It is a little bit of the same when I compare Noel's solo career to Liam's. From Beady Eye to The John Squire album, I think that the Liam albums have always felt more colourful and carefree, more Oasis. And the turn that Noel took in 2017 with WBTM and the weird EPs was not in my taste. However, I would argue that the post-Oasis album with the best songs is Chasing Yesterday.

[morning_rain]

Morning Glory and Noel's first album, but overall Liam's career.