From Jay Z to Florence Pugh: the five best covers of Oasis
Since their emergence in the mid-1990s, Oasis have built an empire of four-chord rock anthems with monster choruses’. An albeit simple approach, there is an undeniable alchemy to the delivery of their songs that makes them so compelling. The tenderness of Noel Gallagher’s songwriting, proudly sung by his enigmatic brother Liam, elevated the songs far above the musings of a local pub-dwelling band. Or, as Pete Doherty so eloquently put it, “I subscribe to the Umberto Eco view that Noel Gallagher is a poet and Liam is a towncrier.”.
Such is the relatively simple yet emotive make-up of their back catalog; cover versions have popped up in every corner of the internet. From bedroom webcams to Radio 1 live lounges, musicians, both famous and unknown, have had a crack at an Oasis song.
But what is the key to a good cover, regardless of the artist? Ultimately, it has to have some level of originality. There’s a fine line between a cover that tips its hat to the artist and something that is just outright karaoke. For example, Oasis have covered The Beatles— the band they cite as their north star—to good effect.
When Liam’s unshackled vocal delivery takes on the warped world of a John Lennon narrative in songs like ‘I Am The Walrus’, there’s a unique artistic value that’s being added. And when they blended their track ‘Whatever’ with Ringo Starr’s ‘Octopus’s Garden’ there was a sonic handshake between the two bands, as opposed to a shallow exercise in pastiche.
So when it comes to a good Oasis cover, it’s less about capturing the caustic energy of Noel’s guitar or the winding pronunciation of Liam’s vocals, but instead a repackaging of the deeply soulful atmosphere their songs so famously captured.
The five best covers of Oasis
DMA’s – ‘Gas Panic’
Taking on one of Liam Gallagher’s most soaring vocal performances certainly isn’t for the fainthearted. It’s the sort of trapped door that the prospect of a cover can conceal. And while DMA’s have certainly garnered their aesthetic influence from a 1990s Gallagher family gathering, they wisely restrained themselves from the temptation of trying to perform like the Manchester brothers on this cover of ‘Gas Panic’.
Allowing the piano chords to do the song’s heavy lifting, they implement their own unique vocal style onto the track, giving the song sadness in place of the original’s urgency.
The original song is one of Oasis’ finest recordings and, in particular, one of Liam’s strongest performances, so it would be lofty praise to say that it sits anywhere near it in terms of greatness. But credit has to be given to the Australian trio for their subversion of an otherwise powerful Oasis classic.
Jake Bugg – ‘Slide Away’
Rising from the ashes of the Oasis explosion were artists like Jake Bugg. Brooding and introspective, his 2013 self-titled debut album shone a new light on the harsh pavements of the sort of working-class Britain that Oasis so famously portrayed in their own debut.
Taking on ‘Slide Away’ from Oasis’ debut album Definitely Maybe is no mean feat and similarly to Gas Panic, boasts an outrageously powerful vocal from Liam. But Bugg flipped the song and brought it safely into his wheelhouse with an intricate fingerpicking performance and a more pared-back vocal delivery that takes it from the council estates of Manchester to the dive bars of Nashville.
Sounding similar to ‘Strange Creatures’, from his second album Shangri-La, it’s a dense instrumental composition that removes a lot of Oasis’ trademarks from it’s performance. And considering how furiously he picks at the strings to try and match the original recording’s vibrant arrangement, it’s impressive that he’s able to put together a vocal melody of his own.
Florence Pugh – ‘Wonderwall’
Before her meteoric rise to big screen stardom, Florence Pugh was just another talented creative picking up an acoustic to play ‘Wonderwall’.
Staring into the depths of your soul through a grainy webcam, Pugh manages to capture a unique sense of melancholy to the otherwise overdone tune with her finger-picked melody and distinct vocal flourishes on top.
The latter point is the key signifier of what makes it such a compelling cover. Pugh avoids the trap of annunciating the same words as Liam and instead emphasises different, more nuanced angles of the narrative. It’s perhaps a skill reserved for such an accomplished actor, who is able to take otherwise exhausted material and place it into a very different realm of interpretation.
Yumi Zouma – ‘Champagne Supernova’
Purely for it’s downright subversiveness, Yumi Zouma’s take on ‘Champagne Supernova’ reigns high on the list of Oasis cover performances.
While they covered the entire (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? album, the New Zealand band’s take on the seven-minute closer is the standout, simply for how they turned it into a four-minute synth-pop banger that sounds like the brooding cousin of A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’.
Tip-toeing on a highwire of innovation and irreverence, it’s undoubtedly a sonic shift that would raise the furrowed brows of Liam Gallagher. Regardless of your feelings on Yumi Zouma’s take on the song, it certainly confirms the timelessness of Noel Gallagher’s lyrics. Even on a bed of electronic drums and synthesised stabs, the chorus still incites an arm-in-arm singalong.
Jay-Z – ‘Wonderwall’
Simply for its cultural importance in the crossing over of genres, perhaps the most famous and daring cover of an Oasis song was performed by Jay-Z during his 2008 headline Glastonbury slot.
His monumental headline booking was criticised by Noel Gallagher, who said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” continuing, “If you start to break it, then people aren’t going to go. I’m sorry, but Jay-Z? No chance.”
He added: “Glastonbury has a tradition of guitar music, and even when they throw the odd curveball in on a Sunday night, you go ‘Kylie Minogue?’ I don’t know about it. But I’m not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. It’s wrong.”
While Jay Z’s rendition barely passes as a fully fledged cover, his brief performance of ‘Wonderwall’ before dropping into ‘99 Problems’ is a landmark moment in music festival culture. For Noel’s remarks mirrored a wider fear shared among antiquated fans, who feared that the arrival of an MC to Britain’s biggest stage was the final nail in rock music’s coffin.
So when Jay Z stepped foot on stage, crooning the wrong lyrics over a jangly rendition of an Oasis classic, it made a humorous but cutting jibe at the notion of any genre holding privilege over audiences.
