Oasis
Live Forever [single]

INTRO (this time it's essential): I've already prepared myself for the fact that many of you will critique me for reviewing not only Oasis (which most of the de-baser community doesn't like) but even one of their singles! I myself find single reviews useless, which is why this will be my first and last one; but it was a moral duty to write something about this song, a symbol of a rock movement that was about to give birth to something truly energetic and unrepeatable.

The single was released on August 8, 1994, produced by Mark Coyle, mixed by Owen Morris, and contains a whopping four different songs in full Oasis style, all written by Noel.
It’s the single that was supposed to launch the band in the States (in Europe, Shakermaker and Supersonic had already been released) and it’s the band's first to include the song's lyrics inside. The tracklist presents Live Forever also in radio edit (with the drum intro cut), followed by Up In The Sky, played by Noel in an acoustic version (the continuous slide and Noel’s voice, which sounds better than his brother's in this guise, are very nice). Immediately after, we go to one of the most gruesome songs ever written by the Gallaghers, that is Cloudburst, which presents the umpteenth verse with the inevitable rrraaaiiiiiiiinnnne of England. It closes with a live version of Supersonic that lasts 5 minutes, truly perfect. Liam's voice is not yet scratchy and deep as in the latest albums; the timbre is unripe and clean (oh my God it seems like I’m describing a wine on channel 5); the live impact is the usual Oasis mark: a powerful wall of sound, simple to “recreate at home” with three chords, but sure to catch the ear of the listener. The riff to Live Forever, I think, will be the most whistled in the shower across much of Europe that year.

The cover photo (by photographer Michael Spencer Jones) portrays in black and white the house of John Lennon’s aunt (I absolutely cannot tell you what the usefulness of all this was).
Live Forever quickly reached the top of the best-selling singles in Great Britain, confirming Noel Gallagher’s songwriting as the best around (we are still talking about 1994/95), capable of producing generational anthems (maybe doing a bit of borrowing) that spoke of how frustrating it was to be unemployed in Manchester, or to be a drug addict in Manchester, or simply about the worsening weather.
Many find Oasis the most overrated band of the last decade, others consider them a good rock band that knew how to speak like no one else in the nineties about the everyday feelings of ordinary people, those who get off work at seven and want to go watch the Champions League match at the pub with friends. I clearly side with the latter.