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.

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? - Oasis

This is where it all started, the first album I acquired. I must give credit where it is due, however: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? was originally a present to my sister. I don’t recall if she didn’t like it or what, but I slowly appropriated it until I wound up listening to it pretty much every day after school. The album came out in the Fall of 1995, and she received it sometime that year, if not early in ’96, so I would have just turned 13 or so…yep, definitely ripe for that “let me obsess over music or boys” phase. I wore that album out, too. I listened to that album so much that the one I currently own isn’t even that same one from ‘95/’96 because that one got so badly scratched, I had to buy a new one. The funny part is, since I listened to it last week, it must have been years since I had last heard it. Time is really creepy when you start to put it that way…

Anway…this is a seriously good album. And it doesn’t much matter if I’m biased about this or not, it’s pretty well agreed upon that this is a good album. For example, I just learned that this album won the Brit Award for the best British Album of the last 30 Years at the 2010 Brit Awards. I’m not exactly sure what the Brit Awards are, but, well, at least someone out there agrees that this is a seriously good album. It has a lot of the same emotional power, rock exuberance, heartfelt lyrics, and everything else that made people take notice of Oasis when Definitely Maybe came out, but it is much more polished than their debut album. You lose some of the rawness that was in the debut album, but you still get great harmonies and ultimately a more put-together sound.

I must concede some gritty truths though. I would not trade Hello for Rock ‘N’ Roll Star for best opening track. Hello is good but Rock ‘N’ Roll Star feels much more emotional. I would also be hard pressed to pick Wonderwall over Live Forever. But you got my favorite Oasis song of all time here: Don’t Look Back in Anger. I guess it’s a disservice to Liam, who really shines in this album as a vocalist, even more so than in Definitely Maybe, but I always had a particular fondness for Noel’s voice, which made this song particularly awesome. There’s also Some Might Say, arguably one of my top five favorite Oasis songs. And the amazingly epic Champagne Supernova. I really like this description I found for that song in Allmusic.com: it succeeds at coming off with a “top-of-the-world/end-of-the-movie feeling.” So true. And, it’s got everything you need in an epic song, from the mellow intro to the rising sound, and the waves crashing (literally) at the end. The length contributes to the epic feel also, topping out the album at 7 minutes and 30 seconds. But it never feels overblown or long.

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? feels a little less rock ‘n’ roll heavy than Definitely Maybe, but it definitely showcases good song-writing, good vocals, good musicians, a well put-together band, and it pretty much sums up a big chunk of the rock scene of the ‘90s. So, I feel like I could have done a lot worse when I was 13 than listening to this album (cue Rock saying I should have been badass like him and listened to Iron Maiden =P), and years later I still love it.

Definitely Maybe - Oasis

Every now and then I’ll find myself randomly listening to an Oasis song and recalling how much I like this band. Oasis is one of the few celebrity things that I obsessed about when I was a teenager. Heavily. Buying all their stuff (as much as I could find, anyway, which was really just their main albums since their singles never made it to Honduras), visiting numerous fan websites, and collecting new stories and photographs. I even had a scrapbook of sorts (lots of interviews printed out and kept in a folder). I taped their Unplugged session and Live by the Sea documentary back when MTV was worth something (I haven’t bothered looking through my old VHS tapes back home to see if those are still around…). Admittedly it was easy to follow their news since they were constantly stealing media attention by getting into brawls, dropping world tours, and of course the wibbling rivalry between brothers Liam and Noel (I always liked Noel better). And, because Oasis is one of the few bands (if not the only one, come to think of it) for which I have all major studio releases, I end up getting this irresistible urge to listen to their entire discography in chronological order. And this time I’m gonna write down my thoughts about it. I was going to make this one huge post but I have nine albums, so to keep it organized I’ll split it up into several posts.

Going in chronological order, we have their debut album Definitely Maybe, which was actually the second album of theirs that I purchased. I’ve been mulling over how hard it is to evaluate this album because I cannot separate the emotional attachment I have to it. I wore this album out. Even if it could be explained to me why the album as a whole or any one particular song is just awful, I would still be completely biased and in love with this album. Nowadays, if I don’t like a song on a CD I just skip the song. I would not be able to skip a song on this disc. I know every song as soon as I listen to the first chords. Even a song like Digsy’s Dinner, which is one of their most off-the-wall songs ever, holds a special place in my heart. So I don’t know if I can be objective.

Here’s what I know though. Rock ‘N’ Roll Star is definitely the most awesome opening song to an album, ever, hands down. The album as a whole is full of Oasis classics, songs people still remember them by: Supersonic, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Shakermaker, these are classic Oasis. Live Forever is AMAZING. It’s more than an Oasis classic, it’s up there with the greatest songs of all time. Slide Away should have been a bigger hit (it should have been released as a single). Liam Gallagher does indeed have one of the most distinctive, original, powerful, emotional voices in rock. The band may be channeling The Beatles frequently, but they do it well. The lyrics tend to be silly, nonsensical, and very British, but they can also be very powerful. The lyrics, along with the melodies, give you a sense of the working class background the band members came from, as well as their dreams, their cockiness, and their optimism.

Those are my blanket statements regarding this album. I couldn’t back them up with any proof that would be beyond question, but this is how I see it. And, what’s even more amazing, is that this is a debut album. Their whole sound and style was tight right from the beginning. Granted, the album does sound rough around the edges, but that raw sound only adds to the rocknroll attitude. That’s another fitting description: this album has attitude, and lots of it.