open your ears

Oasis | Champagne Supernova

Champagne Supernova is the only Oasis song I can truly listen to and never get bored of. This is a hot take, but I’m not an Oasis fan. Actually I think they are the most overrated band out there. I don’t know why that is. I listened to all of their albums and really gave them a try. Maybe you have to be from Great Britain to appreciate it more. I don’t know. But the stuff that bothers me is also very noticeable in this song. So keep on reading and you’ll maybe share my thoughts.

It was a few years ago now when this got recommended to me by a good friend. He told me “Champagne Supernova is such a banger, right?” and I was like “yeah man, you the man (I have no idea what he’s talking about)”. But then that same day I gave this song a listen and boy…he really the man.

The way it starts off is just beautiful. You slide right into this song with the same waves that started in the penultimate track of this album The Swamp-Song (Excerpt 2). And immediately you get greeted by this wall of guitars. Some acoustic, some electric. Shortly after that (00:32) Liam Gallagher enters with some of the most psychedelic lines you could ever get from Oasis. In the background you can also hear a very quiet mellotron that mixes itself in between the guitars. Shortly after the chorus (01:22) we hear the drums enter with its beat. Up until that moment you didn’t miss the drums, but not just because of the arrangement. When you listen to how those acoustic guitars are mixed, you can hear how bright and percussive they sound. They mimic a Ride Cymbal in the most efficient way.

As I’m listening to the song in the background I’m again shocked at how little you hear of the bass guitar. Don’t get me wrong, you probably hear enough, but it’s so far back in the mix, that it might as well not be there.

As we enter the second chorus at about 02:01 (the first with whole band) we are pushed into this wall of noise. It’s like they are trying to achieve this supernova they’re singing about. As we move onward even more guitars get layered on top of the others already present. Alan White just beats everything out of those drums and adds to the explosion. They at least knew that vocal harmonies would have been too much at this point. That’s why Liam stay alone the whole song.

One of my favorite parts of this song is this little drum fill that happens right before the next chorus at about 03:42. That fill ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta is so nicely laid back. Unfortunately you almost don’t hear it because of the muddy mix.

The next supernova (except for the chorus) happens right after the chorus at about 04:34. Great guitar solos, nice full band performance and haunting Na-ahs by the backing vocalists. But after an explosion there must always be a calm-down. And this happens in the nicest way possible: As we leave this section of cacophony the mellotron is more present and shortly after that we get a nice Beatles-call back with those seagull-like sounds.

Slowly but surely we fade out of this supernova and make our way to a beautiful outro which layers different instruments with different tempos over each other. Great way to end off this song and the album as a whole.

At this point you might have noticed what I don’t like about Oasis. It’s not just their music. Although I really have to say that they are quite repetitive and not as interesting hook-wise. Here and there you get real bangers from them but all in all…
Maybe I’m just too young yet. Maybe it’s like a good red wine. I don’t know.

What I really don’t like about Oasis is the sound of their music. I don’t really care about it that much in this song, because it suits the song in a weird way. Maybe because of the title, maybe not. But all in all their songs sound so muddy and undefined. I immediately have to think about Phil Spector Productions. Phil Spector is known for his “Wall of Sound” approach. And I really think that his production techniques ruined some of the greatest songs (songwriting-wise) out there. One of my favorite albums All Things Must Pass by George Harrison could be so much better if it didn’t have Phil Spector working on it. Just like with Oasis that album sounds so full and leaves no room for anything. I think it’s the same way with Oasis. They are great songwriters. I won’t deny that, but the production of their songs is something that bothers me deeply.

Nonetheless, I love this song. It takes me back to that day in school when my friend showed it to me. And whenever I have some seven minutes of time on my hands, I pop it in and soak in the feeling of this supernova.