Definitely Maybe
| Oasis
Definitely Maybe
Definitely Maybe is the debut studio album by English rock band Oasis. The album was released on 29 August 1994 by Creation Records. Definitely Maybe was an immediate commercial and critical success in the United Kingdom, having followed on the heels of the singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker", and "Live Forever". The album went straight to number one in the UK Albums Chart and became the fastest-selling debut album in the UK at the time; it went on to be certified 7× Platinum (2.1 million+ sales) by the BPI. Definitely Maybe marked the beginning of Oasis's success in the United States, selling over one million copies there despite only peaking at 58 on the Billboard 200. The album went on to sell over 8 million copies worldwide and brought widespread critical acclaim. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Eventually, the Gallaghers turned into the same rich dicks they were trying to usurp on Definitely Maybe—a sad vengeance. But on the way up, they marked millions. Maybe that should be enough.
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Time
Definitely Maybe Is (Definitely) a Reminder of Oasis' Greatness.
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NME
much of ‘Definitely Maybe’’s enduring appeal is in the broad nonsense of the words: in the context of the music itself, all that rain/pain, sky/fly, Elsa/Alka Seltzer gibberish somehow sounds important, inviting the listener to project whatever they want onto the songs.
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BBC UK
have these songs transcended the Conservative-greyed and Britpop-glossed years in which they became public property to become heroic, gigantic pop monuments in their own right? Definitely.
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Classic Rock Review
This album was instrumental in revitalizing the bright and optimistic “Britpop” movement in the midst of an era dominated by the deeper and darker grunge sound.
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Audioxide
Despite a handful of captivating anthems, Definitely Maybe is solid rather than spectacular, lacking the details and variations of the record that followed it.
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Drowned in Sound
As a record Definitely Maybe is near enough faultless. As a sentiment, it’s everlasting.
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All Music
Definitely Maybe winds up a rare thing: it has the foundation of a classic album wrapped in the energy of a band who can't conceive a future beyond the sunset.
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The Quietus
Although Definitely Maybe: Chasing The Sun Edition is predictably flabby and mostly gratuitous (as commercially motivated re-releases tend to be), it also highlights some of the things that made Oasis's debut such a powerful sonic statement on its original release.
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The Line of Best Fit
it sounded life affirming, with its promise of white lines, gin and tonics and taking us away.
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Sputnik Music
Definitely Maybe is Oasis at their best: raw rock and roll power, life affirming lyrics, and perhaps for the first and last time in their career, not a single duff track.
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Rolling Stone
Twenty years on, Oasis' debut remains one of the most gloriously loutish odes to cigarettes, alcohol and dumb guitar solos that the British Isles have ever coughed up.
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UNCUT
If Definitely Maybe still sounds pretty much as Noel envisaged, that’s certainly to do with the quality of the songs, the delivery and the timing. But Definitely Maybe is also untainted by the later decline and fall: the multi-tracking, the cocaine bloat and the imitators that followed in its wake.
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Renowned for Sound
An era-defining record packed with hit singles and fan favourites epitomising the Britpop of the mid 1990s.
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oocities
Definitely Maybe was an exciting if unoriginal debut, as the band’s cocksure, swaggering approach provided a breath of fresh air compared to the “woe is me” sentiments of most Generation X’ers.
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Spectrum Culture
Definitely Maybe is an utterly phenomenal album, the kind that rocks hard without falling back on the tropes that had already become a bit tired by 1994.
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The Surveyor
Either way, this album is truly underrated and should be praised more for what it is. This band is just insanely talented and it really shows in this album.
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The Student Playlist
it isn’t the nostalgia that makes Definitely Maybe great, and neither is it the incalculable influence it’s had on so many British bands since, not even the sales figures and the chart positions. It’s the nature of that success: five working class men from Manchester shaking up a complacent and fundamentally middle class music industry, inspiring, connecting with and giving hope to so many regular people, even twenty years after its release, is why Definitely Maybe remains so great.
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AV Club
With Definitely Maybe, Oasis brought swagger back to England’s rock scene.
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LARB
Definitely Maybe, then, challenges the received wisdom that the turn Britain took in the 1990s was the only one possible. As well as an accomplished assessment of an underrated album from an overrated band.
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Better Call Creative
Definitely Maybe is without a doubt an album you must hear before you die, so if you haven’t heard it before go & listen to it right now!
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Ham & High
Brit-rock revivalists' debut loses none of its rough-hewn bravado - but bonus material underwhelms.
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Words for Music
It’s cliche to say it but it’s also an album that made me think differently as an individual, took me on a different path musically and definitely changed my lifestyle both socially and culturally. I discovered so many different bands and went so many gigs from that day forward.
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Pop Matters
With Definitely Maybe, however, it's hard to dress up something as straightforward as meat and potatoes rock 'n' roll, which is exactly what Oasis was delivering at this point in their career, and it's exactly what made them stand out from 1994's cluttered airwaves.
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Stereogum
Against most expected odds, Definitely Maybe shocked me when I returned to it. It sounds invigorating in 2014; it sounds foreign in 2014. It’s the sound of a band that knew it could take over the world, and it’s imbued with extra power for the hindsight knowledge that, yeah, they did. It’s the sound of something that happened in my lifetime, and may never happen again.
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Classic Rock Review
Definitely Maybe is wonderful; it is exciting, loud, beautiful and optimistic. Oasis could never live up to the promise on show in this record, but few ever can when the promise is this great.
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Louder Than War
Definitely Maybe stands out as a defining album of the 1990s and one of the most notable records in rock history.
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Skiddle
An album that has to this day matured like a fine wine yet is still seamlessly glamourized in nineties nostalgia.
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Under the Radar
This is some of the best '90s Britpop out there.
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Retro Album & Music Reviews
This IS a good debut album, hell it’s a good album. They burst onto the scene and before ugly battles that would later take place - really had something, energy. Don't neglect this record. Believe.
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Medium
As far as debut albums go, this is absolutely exceptional and it’s easy to see why Oasis influenced so many bands after them, becoming trailblazers for the Britpop movement of the 90s. For me, growing up in Greater Manchester, they were a huge influence on what music I listen to now and this album is timeless for me.
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