Today it's almost standard practice for music journalists to look back on the Britpop era with a self-loathing embarrassment, the general agreement being that the wave of euphoria it catalysed duped us all into placing more importance than wholly sensible on a transient, contrived and, let's face it, somewhat silly era of British music.
It's understandable, of course, but in the scramble to restore some perspective in the wake of 'Cool Britannia', it's easy to forget what the UK music landscape looked like before Albarn, Cocker and the Gallaghers came on the scene.
In the 80's, Cyndi Lauper had been voted the 'Voice of the MTV Generation', an industry then dominated by pop moguls and their sugary starlets. By the early 90's in the UK the commercial sterility of that era was being blown away by those who were something altogether different - although in many instances no less contrived - producing indie music that felt raw, powerful, unadulterated and, most importantly, had mass appeal on both sides of the pond.
Oasis in particular, made you feel like anything was possible - even probable - the audacity of their wall of sound approach to rock 'n' roll mixing with an unbridled working class vitality to produce a transcending energy, personified by Liam Gallagher's primal vocal delivery and on stage menace.
The Mancunians were the first group I adored, waiting breathlessly for each new release and devouring every song as if it provided some kind of inherent life force (which in a way, it did).
Cigarettes & Alcohol, with its compressed tape hiss segueing into an epochal (if stolen) riff before exploding into the ultimate anthem to hedonism, still - even though I should know better by now - has the ability to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Of course this ode to the idle is, in many ways, the embodiment of what would go on to undermine the lazy exuberance of the era. However, for me, Cigarettes & Alcohol still feels life affirming and wonderfully cathartic. Undoubtedly it set back my political, intellectual and cultural development a few years but it also opened my eyes to the enigmatic possibilities of pop music.
Nothing has instilled the same swagger in my gait as listening to Oasis in their prime and that, whether just cause for embarrassment or not, has to be worth something.
It's understandable, of course, but in the scramble to restore some perspective in the wake of 'Cool Britannia', it's easy to forget what the UK music landscape looked like before Albarn, Cocker and the Gallaghers came on the scene.
In the 80's, Cyndi Lauper had been voted the 'Voice of the MTV Generation', an industry then dominated by pop moguls and their sugary starlets. By the early 90's in the UK the commercial sterility of that era was being blown away by those who were something altogether different - although in many instances no less contrived - producing indie music that felt raw, powerful, unadulterated and, most importantly, had mass appeal on both sides of the pond.
Oasis in particular, made you feel like anything was possible - even probable - the audacity of their wall of sound approach to rock 'n' roll mixing with an unbridled working class vitality to produce a transcending energy, personified by Liam Gallagher's primal vocal delivery and on stage menace.
The Mancunians were the first group I adored, waiting breathlessly for each new release and devouring every song as if it provided some kind of inherent life force (which in a way, it did).
Cigarettes & Alcohol, with its compressed tape hiss segueing into an epochal (if stolen) riff before exploding into the ultimate anthem to hedonism, still - even though I should know better by now - has the ability to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
Of course this ode to the idle is, in many ways, the embodiment of what would go on to undermine the lazy exuberance of the era. However, for me, Cigarettes & Alcohol still feels life affirming and wonderfully cathartic. Undoubtedly it set back my political, intellectual and cultural development a few years but it also opened my eyes to the enigmatic possibilities of pop music.
Nothing has instilled the same swagger in my gait as listening to Oasis in their prime and that, whether just cause for embarrassment or not, has to be worth something.
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