It’s hard now, in a world where Oasis’s name has become a synonym for predictable, stodgy dad rock, to recall the impact the band had when they first loped into view in the mid-90s. The indie charts had become a horrible place, full of vaguely new-wavey pop, the odd emo act and whiney, prepubescent-leaning jangle. Nothing much seemed to have any life to it.
Then came Shakermaker, a track that contained every single element of Oasis’s defining elements: a deafening swagger, loud guitars, Liam Gallagher’s absurdly over-Lennoned vocals (‘sheyyyiyine’), lyrics that made no sense at all, and a tune you’d definitely heard somewhere else already. Oasis were, in many ways, the Sex Beatles, melodic in a classic 60s fashion with epic power chord guitars.
