“Is that the edition with the orchestra song?” asked my dad, pointing at the double album edition of Definitely Maybe. We were on holidays in Spain, my nose spent the previous day bleeding all the time (I’m not good in warm weather) and my birthday was nearing.

“Yeah, it’s only a single, though” I replied and he just grabbed it and placed it in his basket with FNAC logo on the side. Spain is such a beautiful place and it was the only time I would travel with them there. I don’t remember eating so much food, drinking so much red wine and getting heat stroke so many times.

As many of my peers, I loved Oasis when Definitely Maybe was released, and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? never left my stereo in ’96. Be Here Now tested my love of the band, and by the time The Masterplan was released, I knew it was the end of that golden era. I half-heartedly bought some of their later albums, but I don’t really listen to them at all, barring Fuckin’ in the bushes and The importance of being idle.

Those two early Oasis albums remind me of Sundays. I would get a barrage of homework in college for Math 3, which was calculus, and then for Math IV, which was differential equation. Delivery dates were always on Mondays, so I’d leave all the math work for Sunday mornings. After breakfast, I’d pour myself a big mug of coffee and listen to both Definitely Maybe and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? First multivariable integral? Bring it on down and Slide away blasting from my headphones. That stupid problem with two ambassadors drinking coffee, one with milk, one without, no data and you having to model who has a cooler coffee after 10 minutes? Roll with it and Cast no shadow, on repeat, carrying me through waves of numbers, differentials, and exercises shamelessly ripped from Makarenko’s magnus opus.

As I said yesterday, Suede became a band that I aligned myself with more, perhaps later than expected. When Oasis reunited, I did try to get tickets but wasn’t keen on going, as I’d knew it just wouldn’t be the same. Luckily, I was too back on the line and even if I got another email with another chance to buy tickets, I just thought that my time with them was over decades ago. I’ll listen to a couple of tracks here and there and smile reminiscing about those 4 hour marathons to solve all the calculus homework accrued over the week, but what’s gone is gone. Weirdly enough, I’ve found a better listening experience with Noel’s own project, and I still think he should fully embrace electronica, a genre he clearly loves but might be undecided to delve into. Check Teotihuacan or his collaborations with The Chemical Brothers for a “what if?” taste of another world.

Anyways, here’s my second all time fave track by Oasis, Columbia.

-Sam J. Valdés López