Oasis
Definitely Maybe (Remastered Deluxe Edition)
(Big Brother Recordings)

There’s a ton of stuff on Oasis’ 20^th anniversary release of their 1994 debut Definitely Maybe. As you’d expect with a remastered 3-disc set, there are sure to be some gems…and some not-so-much-gems.

The original album (remixed here) is simply wonderful; the roiling electric noise of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” opens, the cool tom beats and piano/bass/guitar sparkly melange of the big “Live Forever” with its soaring Noel Gallagher’s lead sounds great and the Monkees-like snap and roll of “Up In the Sky” is a everything-in-your-face-production-winner with Liam Gallagher’s falsetto just adding the right touch.

The guitar feedback jump of the rather lackluster to the triple attack of what preceded it, “Columbia” is here of course as is the white label demo of this tune the band was pimping before the album’s release as well as an alternate mix. And of course the loose grove of “Supersonic,” the band’s first entry into the Top 40, is here (as are the two sloppier live versions spread across dics 2 and 3).

I like the “Bang-A-Gong” rip-off of “Cigarettes & Alcohol” (again we get sloppy live versions of this tune here later on). “Slide Away” gives Noel free range for his wailing, but then it all ends with the very cool clean guitar leading of “Married with Children.”

The live “I Will Believe” on disc 2 moves at a good medium pace as does the country “D’Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?” (the live version on disc 3 turns into quite the clap-along crowd pleaser.) The acoustic “Sad Song” is included here, a pretty tune with Noel singing over a big, loose acoustic strumming. Originally this song was only released on the UK vinyl version of Definitely Maybe as well as on the Japanese edition. For the rest of the Oasis completists, there’s never-before-released acoustic versions of “Live Forever” and “Shakermaker,” a demo of “Half the World Away” actually recorded in Noel Gallagher’s hotel room in Tokyo and an unfortunate, overdriven guitar noise attempt at “I Am the Walrus.”