Oasis’s debut 1994 album Definitely Maybe has become a pinnacle and landmark release in rock music and continues to be a force to be reckoned with to this day.

At a time when rock ‘n’ roll was in full throw and the ‘Britpop’ era had begun, Definitely Maybe managed to stand out among all the rest. Maybe it’s the brutality and sheer honesty of five working class lads from a gritty suburb of Manchester, managing to entwine a thick, heavy guitar sound with snarling vocals and punchy lyrics in ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ with down tempo, hopelessly romantic ballads such as the heartbreakingly wistful ‘Slide Away’.

The first line of opening track ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ simply says it all: five lads with a passion for music, stuck in a small town with no easy way out. The lyricism throughout paints a picture of a challenging but hopeful realism that has since inspired and influenced upcoming bands across the world to pick up a guitar and break out of their conventional lives.

As the album progresses though, tracks such as the racing and defiant ‘Up in the Sky’ and ‘Columbia’, to the romantic and assured ‘Live Forever’, it’s clear to see why Definitely Maybe became a definitive work of the 1990s.

With its unpretentious authenticity and anthems which not a single person on earth hasn’t sung to after one too many pints down the pub, it’s no surprise Definitely Maybe has held its place as one of the greatest, essential rock albums of today.

Words by Hannah Leeland