The 1990s was a strange era for music. At the beginning of the decade it was the Grunge scene that dominated, than it was the alternative rock scene, and then it was boybands. Really, no one sound defined the nineties, maybe a specific year, but not the whole decade. The nineties is not like the Two-thousands where dance pop and alternative rock were the definitive music genres of that year, nor the seventies where it was mostly disco and rock, and Elton John. However, the nineties are a fascinating little blip in music history, giving us plenty of oddities that we somehow still remember, yet completely forgot about at the same time. Anybody remember "No Rain"? "Semi-Charmed Life"? "Bittersweet Symphony"? You do, but not until I brought them up, either that or you are a real big music nerd like myself.
Oasis definitely falls within the category of a 90s oddity hit, but people really remember them. You know, people like "Wonderwall" and that seems to be it, nobody really seems to remember "Morning Glory" or "Don't Look Back in Anger", which both came off the same album, but people also seem to remember this song. "Wonderwall" I get, it's an acoustic ballad, which every teenager will just eat up, but "Champagne Supernova"? Why? This is not really a song that I can see mixed in with one of those "nineties classics" CDs you see at the check out aisle in Wal-Mart. But maybe that is the reason people remember it, because it doesn't sound like a song from the nineties, more like a song from the sixties.
You can definitely hear the psychedelic influences in the opening instrumentals, beginning with the sound of waves and then following with this guitar sound that sounds as though Noel Gallagher is drowning a slide guitar, I mean whatever sounds cool I guess. But seriously, the opening instrumentals are awesome, and immediately take me into the song, and get me into a psychedelic feeling. I would say more so than a band like early Pink Floyd, and I'm talking like Piper at the Gates of Dawn Pink Floyd, where they actually tried to be a psychedelic band.
Liam Gallagher does have vocals that split some people, personally I don't mind them too much. I mean, yeah they are pretty much is Bob Dylan had a colonoscopy, but still Bob Dylan has a decent voice and for the style of rock that Liam sings, his vocals match well. Plus, Liam begins with a much more somber tone in his voice, and slowly graduates to his usual level towards the end.
The lyrics are strange, but they are supposed to be. I especially love the line "Slowly walking down the hall/faster than a cannonball" just for how odd the line is. Personally, I think this is another song about nothing like "Loser" or "Bohemian Rhapsody", but everybody has their own interpretations of this song. I like a song that is not directly about anything, it is kind of a nice break to listen to a song like it, considering I listen to a lot of metal, which can get very political, putting it very lightly.
I also love the guitar solos, being pretty reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix but still distinct on it's own. I can't help but think of floating aimlessly on an ocean whenever I hear the song, it's pretty amazing.
The 1990s was an odd time for music, but we got plenty of gems from the rough, and many of those gems were rough. It was a fascinating time that gave us a song that was very reminiscent of the psychedelic era, but still felt right at home in the Alternative scene of the mid to late 90s. Considering plenty of other songs like this have essentially become novelties at this point, it's nice to see that there is still an audience of a song like this.
I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I would comment on the Gallagher brothers, but you know what? It's December, let's just leave it for now.
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