Definitely Maybe

Definitely Maybe is the debut studio album by the English rock band Oasis, released on 29 August 1994 by Creation Records. The album features Noel Gallagher on lead guitar, backing vocals and as chief songwriter, Liam Gallagher on lead vocals, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs on rhythm guitar, Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan on bass guitar and Tony McCarroll on drums.

The band booked Monnow Valley Studio near Rockfield in January 1994 to record the album; they worked with producer Dave Batchelor, whom Noel Gallagher knew from his time working as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets. However, sessions were unsatisfactory, and Batchelor was subsequently fired. In February 1994, the group began re-recording the album at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall, where Noel produced sessions alongside Mark Coyle. The results were still deemed unsatisfactory; in desperation, Creation's Marcus Russell contacted engineer and producer Owen Morris, who eventually worked on mixing the album at Johnny Marr's studio in Manchester.

Definitely Maybe was an immediate commercial success in the United Kingdom, having followed on the heels of the singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker", and the UK top-ten hit "Live Forever", which was also a success on US modern rock radio. It went straight to number one in the UK Albums Chart and became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history at the time; it went on to be certified 10× platinum by the BPI for sales of over 3 million units. It was also successful in the United States, being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album went on to sell over 15 million copies worldwide. It is the only Oasis album to feature all five original members completely; drummer Tony McCarroll was ejected from the band in early 1995, but he would still partially appear on their second album on the track "Some Might Say".

Upon release, Definitely Maybe received widespread critical acclaim and helped to spur a revitalisation in British pop/rock music in the 1990s. It was embraced by critics for its optimistic themes and rejection of the negative outlook of much of the grunge music of the time and is regarded as a cornerstone of the Britpop genre, having since appeared in many publications' lists of the greatest albums of all time. In 2006, the NME conducted a readers' poll in which Definitely Maybe was voted the greatest album ever. In 2015, Spin included the album in their list of "The 300 Best Albums of 1985–2014". Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 217 on its 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Formerly called the Rain, Oasis was formed in 1991 by Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs, Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, Tony McCarroll and Liam Gallagher. Liam soon asked his older brother, Noel Gallagher, to join. Despite reports that Noel insisted on total creative control and leadership, he said in 2016: "There is the myth that I kicked open the fucking rehearsal room door to the theme tune to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and said 'Everybody stop what they're doing. I am here to make us all millionaires', you know? It wasn't that at all". Although Noel wrote all the album's songs, guitarist Bonehead said, "I came up with the riff for 'Up in the Sky' and he built the song around that one but generally Noel would arrive with the finished song".

After recording "Supersonic" at the Pink Museum Studios in Liverpool in December 1993, Oasis booked Monnow Valley Studio near Rockfield to record the album in January 1994. Their producer was Dave Batchelor, whom Noel knew from working as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets. The sessions were unsatisfactory, and Bonehead recalled, "It wasn't happening. [Batchelor] was the wrong person for the job... we'd play in this great big room, buzzing to be in this studio, playing like we always played. He'd say, 'Come in and have a listen.' And we'd be like, 'That doesn't sound like it sounded in that room. What's that?' It was thin. Weak. Too clean."

Additionally, engineer Dave Scott commented, "I couldn't connect with him [Batchelor] artistically or technically, neither could I get any idea from him what his vision for the album was. This made life very difficult for me. I had rarely worked under other producers and when I had, there had always been a collaboration. I think that the lack of direction and different expectations led to an uncoordinated session with too many compromises." Scott described various technical issues that befell the sessions, including defective equipment, poor quality headphones, and excessive sound variation between mixing channels. He was fired by Batchelor after two clashes while recording "Slide Away", and was later informed "Slide Away" was the only track kept from the sessions.

The sessions at Monnow Valley were costing £800 a day. As the sessions proved increasingly fruitless, the group began to panic. Bonehead said, "Noel was frantically on the phone to the management, going, 'This ain't working.' For it not to be happening was a bit frightening." Batchelor was fired, and Noel tried to make use of the music already recorded by taking the tapes to a number of London studios. Tim Abbot of Creation Records said while visiting the band in Chiswick, "McGee, Noel, me, and various people had a great sesh [session], and we listened to it over and over again. And all I could think was, 'It ain't got the attack.' There was no immediacy." Liam Gallagher would say years later that the recordings at Monnow Valley were also characterised by the presence of a "ghost".