“Champagne Supernova” by Oasis

"Champagne Supernova" is the grand finale of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, the second Oasis album, from 1995, and it's the moment the swagger turns to haze. Noel Gallagher wrote it and produced it with Owen Morris, who also recorded it, and Noel himself reckoned it was about as psychedelic as he was ever likely to get.

It takes its time. A soft guitar figure tumbles downward, then the layers pile on: Noel and Paul Arthurs on electric guitars, Paul McGuigan's bass rolling underneath, Alan White on drums and percussion, a melodica line circling round and round, and Paul Weller dropping by to add guitar and backing vocals. Liam Gallagher sings over the lot with a lazy, yearning sneer, and the lyrics are an impressionistic smear that nobody has ever quite pinned down. Noel has said he doesn't really know what it means himself, and that it means something different to everyone who hears it.

Plenty of fans and critics hear it as the defining Oasis song and a summing-up of Britpop; the Guardian's Alexis Petridis called it the band's greatest. American radio took to it too, and it became their second No. 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Nigel Dick directed the video, and the supernova SN 2003fg was even nicknamed after it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.