Be Here Now

Arriving with the force of a hurricane, Oasis' third album, Be Here Now, is a bright, bold, colorful tour de force that simply steamrolls over any criticism. The key to Oasis' sound is its inevitability — they are unwavering in their confidence, which means that even the hardest rockers are slow, steady, and heavy, not fast. And that self-possessed confidence, that belief in their greatness, makes Be Here Now intensely enjoyable, even though it offers no real songwriting breakthroughs. Noel Gallagher remains a remarkably talented synthesist, bringing together disparate strands — "D'You Know What I Mean" has an N.W.A. drum loop, a Zeppelinesque wall of guitars, electronica gurgles, and lyrical allusions to the Beatles and Dylan — to create impossibly catchy songs that sound fresh, no matter how many older songs he references. He may be working familiar territory throughout Be Here Now, but it doesn't matter because the craftsmanship is good. "The Girl In the Dirty Shirt" is irresistible pop, and epics like "Magic Pie" and "All Around the World" simply soar, while the rockers "My Big Mouth," "It's Getting Better (Man!!!)" and "Be Here Now" attack with a bone-crunching force. Noel is smart enough to balance his classicist tendencies with spacious, open production, filling the album with found sounds, layers of guitars, keyboards and strings, giving the record its humungous, immediate feel. The sprawling sound and huge melodic hooks would be enough to make Be Here Now a winner, but Liam Gallagher's vocals give the album emotional resonance. Singing better than ever, Liam injects venom into the rockers, but he also delivers the nakedly emotional lyrics of "Don't Go Away" with affecting vulnerability. That combination of violence and sensitivity gives Oasis an emotional core, and makes Be Here Now a triumphant album. — Stephen Thomas Erlewine.

but does he stick by it?

i'd be interested to see what those journos would say about the album if they reviewed a re-issue of it tomorrow....

Clearly there were two stages to the reception:

1. expectation, hype, release to radio, glowing reviews, big initials sales, etc. (Tom E is correct, of course, about the background.)

2. major sense of let-down, happening unusally quickly; conversion to the kind of opinions expressed by many on this thread so far.

(Of course, many people had always disliked Oasis, and continued to dislike them: fair enough.)

What is perhaps surprising: there has never been a stage 3, in which opinion balances out between the initial hype and the reaction against it. People seem to have stuck at the view that stage 2 is correct. Maybe for them it is. For me, I don't think it is. I listened to the whole LP the other day and enjoyed it perfectly OK. (I then listened to the whole of Morning Glory and it was better: which as it should be.) So, I'm wondering if anyone out there shares my perspective.

A lot of Oasis fans still like it, I should think - ask Ned.

I only heard it once though my view matched the latter-day consensus accurately enough for me to doubt I missed anything.

I will agree with you pretty much. Definitely their worst single, bleargh.

A lot of Oasis fans still like it, I should think - ask Ned.

It grew on me, actually. Still prefer the first album the most but it's a better album than I first thought; I was actually disappointed with it first time through. A lot of people on the list actually think it's their best album, and I've heard the same from others like Angus Batey, f'r instance.

i was about to say the same, but i think there has been more revision with that one than "Be Here Now". I think the popular consensus is that it wasn't as good as "Parklife", but it had some good songs on it. As for me, I think "The Great Escape" was their masterpiece, and one of the 90's very best albums...

Hm - even I might have to vote for Blur on this one

me and some friends went back to our mates brothers house once for a few joints after going into town,and he insisted we listened to be here now,and it was the most enjoyable album ever to listen to at that moment,once we dealt with not wanting to hear it at all by imagining the situation that led to its recording- liam and noel in the studio,coked up to the nines,believing the hype....
their huge ego got more and more appearent as the album went on ("throw another 900 violins in the background!!!")etc
it sounded like the most bloated,coke fuelled,pretentious,over the top shite ever,but it was so enjoyable to listen to- the sheer audacity of it
culminating in a reprise of all around the world...
i've never taken coke,but listening to be here now is probably the closest i've ever come to it..

Excellent take from Marcello.

https://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2025/03/oasis-be-here-now.html?m=1

I've never heard it beyond the singles, just seemed way too baggy and sing along Beatles-y, which I really don't care for.

with all due respect to MC, no

Even a contrary bugger like NV has his limits unlike MC.

All I can say is that loads of us bought that album the Thursday it came out and next day when talking to everyone we were all unanimous that it was a letdown. Nothing to do with the critics either because they told us it was great. It was nothing to do with elitists. I can assure you that most of my pals who I knew from going to the footy, who were certainly not snobby elitists felt it a let down. The backlash started with fans.

much like the Labour Party, the entire enterprise was rotten to the core from day 1, but it took a special moment to shine that fact in our faces

Don't think MC is being a contrarian. Its clearly argued even if I don't think I could give it a listen xp

yeah, i feel his points, i just think no

noel could still kinda write a melody on this album but the production is pretty dreadful and he needed someone to heavily edit all the songs down

I wish this thread were about the Loop b-side instead

xp I think some of the songs in The Masterplan collect the aesthetic of 'rock music post-Loveless' with better editing.

Siamese Twins/Pisces Iscariot does a lot of that with an annoying American bloke on vocals.

todd in the shadows had a great take on this album and the hype around its release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg0FumbR4AU

i always knew the word "slog" growing up, but i think it's more traditionally a uk/european idiom. i think i understood it but the true meaning really became illuminated the first time i heard be here now. i understand not every record is meant to be smooth sailing and pleasant vibes, but a radio-ready guitar rock album from 1997 is one of the last things that should be causing physical exhaustion. what a total slog.

operating on memory, i would argue the masterplan is their best album. still no desire to ever hear anything by these boys ever again.

a radio-ready guitar rock album from 1997 is one of the last things that should be causing physical exhaustion

My friend found this out when he made an Oasis mini-disc playlist that was heavy on mid-tempo anthems, and found himself torpid while listening during an long late-night bicycle journey straight uphill from the lakeshore.

One of my perennial most-hated bands, everything about even their classic period is absolute diarrhoea. And that said! Liam released "Everything's Electric" and it's so good, made even better by the fact that it's the same Oasis formula, just, like, an actually good song, for once

Never listened to Be Here Now but why not I'll try it right here right now

as the anaesthetic block of optimism wore off and people decided to become disappointed by Blair – and therefore also, by extension, by Oasis

"decided" is a very weaselly word there tbh

Omg there is no sidechaining on these mixes, just everything cancelling everything else out. It reminds me of that video where they play two Nickelback songs at the same time

I was looking forward to this one. Given his previous comments on the album I was half-expecting something really negative but then a lot of my favourite recent (and possibly all-time) TPLs have seen him change his mind in a big way (Blood on the Dance Floor being my fav '97 example).

Halfway through the album now, but I listen to it a lot tbf because I've had a fascination with it that goes back to my eighth birthday. The final minute of "D'you Know What I Mean?" is still one of my favourite minutes of any number one single and would have happily listened to someone like Jim O'Rourke or Amorphous Androgynous turn that into a 72 minute album. Actually the peripheral bits of noise and clatter always stand out on Oasis albums imo. Like the way "My Magic Pie" refuses to end until all the mellotrons, skipping jazz 78s and meandering strumming tracks have been individually booted (followed by Noel's 'oh dear'), or the weird -whatever that is- electronic dissonance/alarm clock/dentist drill at the start of the title track which then continues behind the entire song (that's one I'd compare to the Boo Radleys - it sort of reminds me of the start of "Martin, Doom!"*, while the slide whistles of the song proper make me want to hear it covered in a mock 60s toytown arrangement just as I would the Radleys' "Meltin's Worm")

Perhaps I like it more than Marcello because even I'm never tempted to skip "Fade In-Out" - that scream that marks the exact moment the coke seems to set in and it all becomes a phased-out blur and ceases to care one jot about 'roots' at all. I'm just quite amused by it I guess, in a way I probably wouldn't be if this was something from the next number one album.

(*and also of Tom Waits? I can't think which song though)

Magic Pie*

It felt good to be part of something bigger, and if the Alan Moore fan in the attic is going to sneer at that, then it’s a fundamental aspect of what it means to be a human being.

Even if I don't always agree with Marcello's music opinions I always enjoy his kind of snippiness!

That's not too far from the article got shared here by the guy telling us how much better the Da Vinci Code is over "litfic" tbh.

Whole piece starts with setting up two positions as the only possible ones: either you were into Oasis or you were an angry obscurantist; I think a quick look at the charts for 1997 would show that other options were available.

as the anaesthetic block of optimism wore off and people decided to become disappointed by Blair – and therefore also, by extension, by Oasis

― Nancy Makes Posts (sic), Saturday, 22 March 2025 bookmarkflaglink

"decided" is a very weaselly word there tbh

― i got bao-yu babe (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 22 March 2025 bookmarkflaglink

Indeed. The piece does sideline the politics. The optimism was built on sand and short-lived anyway xp

the first people to become disappointed by Blair were single parent mothers, and this had absolutely no Oasis connection at all and was before they visited 10 Downing St.

The notion of a trojan horse Subverting The Mainstream used to be the kind of thing that'd get you laughed off ILM in more enlightened times.

"what was “Hey Jude” about (other than asking John’s lad to cheer up a bit)" - well it is about exactly that and if you don't know the backstory it's still pretty clearly a song about cheering someone on, I'm not invested in discussing the song's merits but it's quite obviously not just about "everything" in the vague Oasis way

I dunno, just so much bluster and lazy thinking in this

I think a quick look at the charts for 1997 would show that other options were available.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Saturday, 22 March 2025 bookmarkflaglink

MC wrote a v good piece on 90s music that covered trip hop, garage, Aphex etc. I should have a look for it.

(xp) Plus it's Oasis, give us a break. Anyway, it's not enough for Marcello to say "I like Oasis and I don't give a fuck what you think about it", that I would respect not this strawman bullshit.

i enjoyed this piece, not least bcz it seemed to be picking up on something i wrote abt in 2014 (tho marcello apparently never saw my piece): https://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2014/03/the-shock-of-the-library-oasis-versus-all-of-art-and-culture

post my exit from the wire in early 1994 i was still very burned and broken on music-listening and so paid no attention at all to the DISCOURSE abt britpop (and tbh not much attention to mainstream music-writing while i was *at* the wire, fvck that, i've got a magazine to put out) -- which meant when i finally went back and listened properly a decade later, my responses werent pre-spoiled by all the chatter of the time. i was arriving without baggage (i mean like anyone sane i think and thought the gallaghers are prats, but plenty of prats make music i like, so)

i'd given dig out yr soul a lot of attention when it came out (for some project of mine that was never completed lol): and that was the first oasis item i'd ever paid close attention to, and it's when i picked up on what westbury white horse above calls the "peripheral bits of noise and clatter", which fascinated me bcz there it was, clearly part of the deal, yet no one ever seemed to talk about it (presumably bcz the brothers didn't) and equally clearly there it was pushed to the outer edges, present-to-be-overlooked or whatever.

they were like two bands playing in one place -- ornette coleman concept i;ve had in my head forever -- where one was the maximalist shouty lads nonsense we all know and are tired of, and the other is this project of, like, subtle miniatures fashioned like a kind of collage-sculpture of a selection of items snipped out of classic rock and these marginal almost eno-esque elements (calling them that in case an oasis ever reads this, as a way to say fuck you yes eno)

then in 2014 i wrote the thing i just linked -- probably responding in the moment to a comments thread on tom ewing's popular but i very much had owen hatherley's writing on pulp in mind, and also k-punk stuff, abt art and class and who's allowed to speak how, and such. maybe also the idea alex niven's 33/13 -- tho i hadn't then read it. what if the *real* (the "real") avant-garde is a shout in street? ect ect

if u like for tl;dr you can jump straight to the paragraph that starts "these exhausting seven-minute drone epics"

they always sounded kinda like crazy horse to me… and like, the making of definitely maybe is at least as fraught and fascinating as that of loveless, the impossibility of getting it all to sound coherent

okay well the rhys chatham thing made me lol but i stopped there, i was naive enough to think this thread might be about something other than the oasis album

if u like for tl;dr you can jump straight to the paragraph that starts "these exhausting seven-minute drone epics"

agree but do you think that in this peripheral role, the helicopter noises and such are something more than indicators of "maximalism"? hardly feels like oasis throwing ashtrays at me, ykwim

MC wrote a v good piece on 90s music that covered trip hop, garage, Aphex etc.

but i think that the ppl who might have been listening to this in 1997 were more likely to be listening to radiohead, or even big beat instead. my impression then was oasis supposed that a moment belonged to them that had already slipped through their fingers. it sounded a step behind even the indie bubble that had fallen for odelay and okc- because it was monolithic and indelicate, not because it was uncluttered.

well, i should probably read more than the one paragraph sorry

read, very good as usual. there are some big ideas i'm not qualified to get into but

they were like two bands playing in one place -- ornette coleman concept i;ve had in my head forever -- where one was the maximalist shouty lads nonsense we all know and are tired of, and the other is this project of, like, subtle miniatures fashioned like a kind of collage-sculpture of a selection of items snipped out of classic rock and these marginal almost eno-esque elements

i don't think these elements are ornamental exactly. marginal, absolutely- because they serve a specific function which is to 'scale up' the bellow and bar-chord. aren't they really there to make the big things look bigger and the wall more imposing and impenetrable?

It strikes me how Noel's thing for audio verité in those moments comes out both in terms of layering in lots of studio-as-instrument incident but also retaining seemingly natural moments of chatter and noise. I only consider that I think he might consider them separate because of a Mark Hoppus interview regarding the first HFB album. Mark remarks on the sounds of people coughing and moving around, and the repeated use of count-ins, and NG returns that such stuff is "real" and intentionally included to draw people in. This stuff is all over most Oasis records too - and by the time of "Go Let It Out", unavoidably to all a collage construction because he is one of only two instrumentalists on the song, it's like he's sticking this stuff in (a count-in after the music's already begun, grunting, saying 'pick up the bass' to himself) to try and undercut the reality of the thing.

But by contrast I vaguely remember a Gonzo interview (I can't find it now, saw it on MTV2 at the time but I hope I'm not misremembering) in which Noel pointed out the minute-long recording of someone walking down the beach at the end of "High Horse Lady" on DOYS - not unlike the end of Be Here Now I guess - reflected an intrigue, if by no means passion, for sound-for-sound's-sake. Yet both the unconscious musique concrete and the heavy signposts for "real"/organic/live-in-the-studio effectively fold into each other - the former naturally absorbing the latter if they're together - because they're both in the margins of songs, natural coughs and backwards samples joined at the hip because in NG's mind they contribute to the ideal album experience, no doubt an important thing for him.

Still i'd like to know more about why he has an interest in these methods or how he came about them. For someone who is very black and white about the music he loved pre-Oasis I'm not sure I can't find obvious answers there (and this being Noel I feel like 'obvious' could be a fair criterion in ruling stuff in/out). The love of psych frippery passim I don't doubt is a Beatles thing - and as far as DOYS is concerned I wouldn't be surprised if Love was on his brain, not just because of the returned intrigue in backwards malarkey (like the reversed "Champagne Supernova" sample at the end of "The Shock of the Lightning"), but like even the ending of "The Turning" with the city sounds mirrors the "Julia" transition at the end of Love's "Eleanor Rigby" - and Weller had room for odd sfx down the sides (the whole first minute of "Music for the Last Couple"), but I dunno, maybe it came from nowhere per se and was something Owen Morris turned him on to. Like Owen's idea to firstly include the sound of them warming up at the start of "Cigarettes & Alcohol" and then turn up the background noise to bury Tony's out-of-time drums in the intro (and the outro) until it spits like JAMC/early MBV white noise. I can never tell how much of Creation's output he was really into - he claims it was just Primal Scream, not even Ride(?) - but I can imagine he heard what Owen had done there - and crucially it really is only the intro and outro - and not only loved it but thought more about what his music could be outside the main body of the songs. Then again there are better examples on the same album of both the weirdness (the last minute of "Rock 'n' Roll Star" turning into a blur) and the already-formed taste for leaving in ad-hoc stuff (the whistling and "oh yeah" beginning "Live Forever")

TL;DR inconclusive ramble about Noel's interest in tiny between-song sounds that will hold no interest to non-fans.

Surely there are better albums to think about

Not when this is up next

(Actually, addendum to my above comment, maybe their Wigan chums who have the number one album after that one fed into the idea?)

Up next? Is this a series?

I'm assuming Urban Hymms is next and once again I'll have to figure out if MC is being serious or is just trolling all of us.

xpost Yeah he's been doing it for almost a decade now I think? Looking at every UK number one album.

Oh

Who’s MC?

Another addendum (trying my own patience now probably sry, but I'm prepared to be as intrigued as I am partly because of Mark's excellent piece but also bcus Noel has clearly taken it seriously at various points, including handing over the whole of track 11 on Morning Glory to nothing but the middle part of a sound collage segue; he can underplay this as the result of having a sound effects phase but stereophonics or whoever wouldn't do that just like the Kaiser Chiefs wouldn't do "Far Out"), but the unmasked studio chat thing: Let It Be maybe? Feel like maybe it if it's not that it's nothing. Still that's usually John quipping actual stuff that's been pasted in, not bits of nothing convo or throat-clearing captured on mic. Basically then he draws from both behind the sofas of both Pepper and Let It Be.

xp Marcello Carlin

Thanks
Who’s that?

Old Skool ILXor & UM Music Writer/Blogger

<UK>

Ah

MC wrote a v good piece on 90s music that covered trip hop, garage, Aphex etc. I should have a look for it.

Couldn't. Google sucks :-(

lmao at people taking this album seriously

Got to pass the time, somehow

Taking albums seriously is what MC does.

I vaguely thought he'd been cancelled.

What for?

Liking Oasis.

there are a thousand Alan Moore fans (who live in the attic) trying to cancel him as we speak!

One could view the Alan Moore fan in the attic as the subverted rage of Carlin himself against the mainstream personified; with said fan safely locked away he is now free to succumb to the advances of our modern day Rochesters, the Gallhager bros.

MC is thinking so much about Be Here Now that he'll dig out an album by The Boo Radleys

Couldn't. Google sucks :-(

It's likely he deleted it at some point when he decided that Gary Glitter or Donald Trump ruined music.

Listening to this (in my attic) instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRB7vzFD4a0

MC is thinking so much about Be Here Now that he'll dig out an album by The Boo Radleys

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, March 23, 2025

Considering that Giant Steps is one of the best albums from the 90s, this is only a positive.

I did the Oasis poll on ILM and got almost nothing from this album. Poll was fun while it lasted if only for everything that came before this one.

loved this write up.
this is the oasis album i listen to whenever i feel the urge.
i genuinely love the excess.

Too many guitars

This is a kind of follow up where Urban Hymns is cast as the alb Be Here Now could've been...

https://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-verve-urban-hymns.html

Just noticed this thread starts with a predator handshake meme featuring yourself and a certain remainiac.

Be Here Now being rubbish truly uniting the tribes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyZspqjtG2k

Just noticed this thread starts with a predator handshake meme featuring yourself and a certain remainiac.

Be Here Now being rubbish truly uniting the tribes.

― a ZX spectrum is haunting Europe (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 9 April 2025 bookmarkflaglink

:-(

imagine if Life Through A Lens had been their 1997 album

lynskey is the ask-a-drunker not the remainiac

I revisited this recently. I like some of the production a lot -- e.g. all the extra squawky guitars in "Magic Pie'. I like that song fine and a few others, but there are no doubt some real stinkers... And they're all too damn long.

Ok I guess there was a turnaround on this?

Urban Hymns - classic or dud?

Be Here Now is my favourite @oasis album.

I love the big, mad, lairy sound of it.

Stand By Me is my favourite track off the album.

Although the ferocity of My Big Mouth always blows me away. And the tenderness of Don't Go Away. And the orchestral majesty of All Around The… https://t.co/SU95If4Sfq

— Matt Forde (@mattforde) August 21, 2025