Oasis album covers ranked
Oasis didn't do elaborate sleeves — they did moments. A messy living room, a London street, a car in a swimming pool. Their covers are photographs of ordinary things that somehow became symbols of the whole Britpop era, mostly because the band had the swagger to say so.
Here are all 7 Oasis album covers we have in the game, ranked from the most recognisable to the least.
1. Definitely Maybe (1994)
Definitely MaybeOasis · 1994
The band's shared living room in Manchester, Liam sprawled on the floor in front of the TV, a globe and a bottle of wine in frame. Shot by photographer Michael Spencer Jones and art-directed by Brian Cannon, it's less a photo than a portrait of a moment — five lads in a flat about to become the biggest band in the country. The most nostalgic sleeve Britpop ever produced.
2. (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995)
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?Oasis · 1995
Two men passing each other on Berwick Street in Soho, one walking towards the camera, one away — a sleeve that looks like an accident but is actually a precisely staged shot. It became the image of the album that defined 1995, and of the whole Oasis-vs-Blur moment with it.
3. Be Here Now (1997)
Be Here NowOasis · 1997
A white Rolls-Royce sinking into a swimming pool, photographed at a country house in Hertfordshire. It was the perfect metaphor for a band at the absolute peak of its excess — and, as it turned out, for an album about to have the air let out of it. The cover is the era.
4. Dig Out Your Soul (2008)
Dig Out Your SoulOasis · 2008
A dense, hand-made collage of photographs, figures and texture, by artist Julian House. After years of clean single images, it's the most art-school sleeve Oasis ever put out — and a fittingly restless one for their final album.
5. Don't Believe the Truth (2005)
Don't Believe the TruthOasis · 2005
A stark, minimal sleeve — mostly empty space with a single stark image, a deliberate step away from the busy covers of the 90s. It's the sound of a band trying to be taken seriously again, and the cover matched: plain, direct, no messing about.
6. Heathen Chemistry (2002)
Heathen ChemistryOasis · 2002
A shadowy, almost abstract photograph, the band reduced to silhouettes and grain. It's moody and atmospheric, but it doesn't carry the instant recognisability of the early sleeves — the kind of cover you have to stop and look at, which Oasis fans never quite did.
7. Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000)
Standing on the Shoulder of GiantsOasis · 2000
A photograph of the New York City skyline, taken from the roof of a Manhattan hotel — and, famously, the album where the band's internal tensions were already showing. The cover is handsome enough, but it reads as a band running on fumes, pointing at a skyline instead of finding its own image.
The band of moments
What ties Oasis's best sleeves together is that they're all photographs of real things — a flat, a street, a pool — that the band's sheer confidence turned into icons. No paintings, no symbols, just ordinary life shot and made enormous.
Which is what makes them such good quiz material. A living room, a Rolls in a pool, a Soho street — see how few tiles it takes to name Definitely Maybe in today's VinylPeek, or browse every rock cover in the archive. If you liked this, rank the Arctic Monkeys' sleeves next.