Be Here Now - Oasis

I was having a particularly hard time figuring out how to start this review. And then I read the Wikipedia page on Be Here Now and now…oh, my, so much to say. This album came out in August 1997, hot off the heels of Morning Glory. By then, Oasis was generally praised as “the biggest band in the world.” Those are Noel’s words, obviously, but it really wasn’t that far off. The media craziness that surrounded the band around this time (’96 to ’97) was huge. Most of my scrapbook articles and photos come from this period, because the band was EVERYWHERE. Making headlines for going on tours, cancelling tours, losing band members…my favorite piece of video-recording from this time was MTV’s Unplugged, which Liam decided to sit out complaining of a sore throat (brother Noel took up the vocals that day and, actually, sounded pretty good), but then sat at the side balcony heckling Noel all night. That crazy kid. And then followed it up by singing off-key and spitting during Oasis’ performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards in NY. Man, those were good times. Those videos still exist somewhere back home :)

Amidst the adoration and fame and constant press, there was much drug abuse. This pretty much sets the stage for how the band recorded Be Here Now and how the album ended up. If there is one thing critics will agree on about Be Here Now is that it is a bloated, overblown album. A few examples from the Wikipedia page:

- In 2007, Q magazine described the fact that Be Here Now is often thought of as "a disastrous, overblown folly — the moment when Oasis, their judgment clouded by drugs and blanket adulation, ran aground on their own sky-high self-belief."
- Q magazine described the album as "cocaine set to music."
- Irish Times journalist Brian Boyd wrote: "Bloated and over-heated (much like the band themselves at the time), the album has all that dreadful braggadocio that is so characteristic of a cocaine user."
- “It’s the sound of…a bunch of guys, on coke, in the studio, not giving a fuck. There’s no bass to it at all; I don’t know what happened to that…and all the songs are really long and all the lyrics are shit and for every millisecond Liam is not saying a word, there’s a guitar riff in there in a Wayne’s World style.” – Noel Gallagher
- "If he [Noel] didn't like the record that much, he shouldn't have put the fucking record out in the first place...I don't know what's up with him, but it's a top record, man, and I'm proud of it — it's just a little bit long." – Liam Gallagher

How awesome are the Gallagher quotes? Love it. Sadly, though, I gotta agree. But, that means I also agree with Liam. Let me say this first though: I didn’t remember remembering the album so well. Does that make sense? I mean, I really thought that I hadn’t paid too much attention to it, that I hadn’t listened to it that many times when I first bought it. But when I put it on these past few weeks, it was like finding a long lost friend. I knew all the songs, all the words, all the harmonies. I don’t feel any real emotional attachment to it as I do to the others, but I still, clearly, enjoyed the hell out of it. Which is why I understand what people are saying about overblown, but I still love it.

Yes, the album is excessive. Every song is looong, and every song is dying to sound epic. Think of an album made up entirely of Champagne Supernova wanna-be’s (but add about 5 minutes of play time to each). The album itself clocks out at around 71 minutes, nearly 20 minutes longer than either of the previous two albums. There are guitar tracks upon guitar tracks, several key changes within the same songs, and just buckets of sound. Listening to the album all the way through in one sitting can be a bit tiresome. Looping it in my car stereo for three days straight was overdoing it just a tad (a tad being the equivalent of eating three or so Cadbury cream eggs in a row…I have never done this…one egg induces a sugar high just fine).

BUT every song does sound masterful. Each song taken on its own sounds epic and sound-defying and each one induces that same high that Champagne Supernova was going for. I agree with Liam. I don’t know what Noel is going on about. Every song on that album is fantastic, in terms of composition, complexity, layers and layers of sound, editing, riffs, harmonies, key changes, lyrics, drums, vocals, guitars, the whole thing. The album fails because it is too much to take in at once (trust me…too much), but every song is memorable. Liam’s voice is as powerful and unique as ever and Noel demonstrates what makes him such a good songwriter and guitarist. Like the previous two albums, Noel wrote all the songs. Also like those albums, the lyrics tend to be silly, nonsensical, and optimistic, but (and I think this is something I haven’t quite gotten across in my other reviews) his lyrics also tend to be poetic and deep. Noel has often been described as something of a romantic and a philosopher. Every now and then he tries too hard and then things sound forced or silly, but in general he writes pretty, meaningful, simple, relatable words.

I was a bit worried that all these years later I would listen to this album and only think “yep, bloated, long, what the hell were they thinking;” I did, but I also rediscovered how awesome all the songs are on their own.