Let's get the immediate obvious out of the way - not counting hidden songs extending length, this is Oasis' longest album, and by a fairly sized margin. The album also contains Oasis' single longest song with "All Around the World" (which, as a fun bonus fact, doubles as the longest song to ever top the British charts), and more than a few songs are comparable in length to the group's previous longest song in "Champagne Supernova". See why people call this record bloated? Then of course, there's the Owen Morris production, the same man who had gave us the Oasis sound in the first place, and for what it's worth it's still here; the caveat is that it's just louder. Morris recalled that Noel would overdub 10 guitar parts of the same line as a mean to make the album sound as "colossal" as possible, and when voicing any concerns to Noel about the album, he was shot down (Morris was also doing lots of cocaine at the time, use your imagination). With a lack of some bass power and a real treble-focused sound, the end result is a certifiable production mess, one far removed from the overdub-cutting practices of their debut Definitely Maybe - it is the Oasis sound taken to its almost illogical apex, anthemic to the point of harsh loudness, something noted by Creation Records owner Alan McGee during the mixing stage - the amount of hands this went through with no changes is... just amazing. Somehow, either by divine intervention or some brief periods of sobriety, it kind of works with the album's writing, almost equally self-indulgent with various references to other works (the most embarrassing being "Fool on the hill and I feel fine" on opening track "D'You Know What I Mean?" - come on, Noel) but still as triumphant as ever - if Definitely Maybe is the soundtrack of a group wanting to be famous, and Morning Glory is the group on the up and up, than Be Here Now is the endpoint of being the biggest group in the world. I guess this is the story that Noel asked us about.
So, yeah, the album sounds so bad that it wraps around to sounding good. big fucking whoop. How are the songs? Well, it ranges. Let me be upfront and say that on my first listen, I thought this record was a chore, but even then there was some immediate standouts - "My Big Mouth" is certainly classic Oasis through and through with its strong chorus, cocky lyrics, and trademark Liam vocal performance, and is a good way to really get the energy going after the blowout "D'You Know What I Mean?"; "Magic Pie", despite being lambasted quite a bit online, is one that I really enjoyed through and through, mostly because it's just kinda dumb fun; "I Hope, I Think, I Know" and "Be Here Now" are both fantastic tracks, every bit as good as some of the highlights on Morning Glory, and honestly I find that both of these are a bit underrated in hindsight, likely due to this album's... reputation in recent years. The penultimate "It's Getting Better (Man!!)" outside of having one of the group's least subtle Beatles references (again) is another high point, the kind of classic positivity that one could find on a record like Morning Glory in droves - this track, like "My Big Mouth", also predates this album, so make of that what you will. The singles are pretty solid throughout too, with "Stand By Me" having a great hook and "All Around the World" being an admittedly fun song of peace, even if it is too damn long and easily shows the worst of the album's production. "The Girl in the Dirty Shirt" and "Don't Go Away" are both very solid numbers, although the latter stands as one of the more derivative moments in the Oasis catalog - I can't be the only person who thinks this song sounds incredibly similar to "Don't Look Back in Anger", which I could almost forgive if it was better. It isn't. Sure, some of the lyrics aren't nearly as strong as on previous records (see "Magic Pie"), but it all manages to sound as upbeat and fun as Oasis ever have - a special bright flavor of hope mixed with cockiness, so snowblinding that you might almost get a whiff of what they were snorting during the sessions.
In the years since the initial acclaim, Be Here Now has soured in reputation - many people even point to this album as not only the end of Oasis' classic years, but the death knell of Britpop as a genre in general. For what it's worth, I don't think that's fully true, especially the death of Britpop part; this was the same year of Blur's self-titled album and Radiohead's OK Computer, so even a second Definitely Maybe probably wouldn't have been enough to stop the tides turning. Still, Be Here Now does play like the end of an era in some senses, and by the next year the Britpop movement would effectively be over; the credits music, Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony", being the last hurrah of it all. It's a monument of excess, and a snapshot of the biggest group in the world exploding in a spectacular monument of cocaine, guitar overdubs, and Johnny Depp on slide guitar (did I mention that? Look it up, he's on "Fade In-Out"), one that almost plays like the acknowledgement of the end; the final sound on the album is art director Brian Cannon shutting a door. Oasis would never be as big as they were on this album, and while it isn't as consistent as either of their first two albums, it still makes for a hell of a fun record, every bit as gigantic as I'm sure Noel wanted it to be at the time before the high wore off.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Be Here Now.
Comments
Post a Comment