Oasis

Be Here Now

Oasis Get Bigger...

Review Score:

(8/10)
...but not necessarily better. Coming off of what is arguably Oasis' best album, _(What's The Story) Morning Glory?_, they would return with the tasty (if not somewhat derivative) Beatle-ish Brit-pop infectiousness that was their stock in trade. So, what's different this time around? Not much, except that some of the songs tend to run much longer than they need to. Long numbers don't bother me very often, but if a certain track doesn't interest me for one or two minutes alone, it turns into something of a nightmare if it runs two, three (or even four) times longer.

And this is where the album precisely suffers. Had some of the tracks been trimmed down in length -- or had been removed, altogether -- this would definitely rank right up there with their earlier classics. Quite a few of the enjoyable songs here *do* rank up there in the classic department, but, the same can't be said for the album as a whole. The typical oceanic wall-of-sound brought on by the maximum electricity-filled guitars is ever-present, and is very welcome, but some of the songs are just not very interesting.

For instance, heavy rockers like "D'You Know What I Mean?," "My Big Mouth," and "It's Getting Better Man" are excellent songs, and the lengthy natures of these are a welcome asset: getting lost in that smothering, dense, loud, electrified (and melodic) wall-of-sound is just a divine, transcendent experience, and made even better given that it lasts longer. This, is where the lengthy aspect works. The heavy, melodic and touching ballads "Magic Pie" and "Stand By Me" similarly share this same asset. However, songs like "Fade In-Out" (boring as ever), "Don't Go Away" (never cared much for this song) and "All Around The World" (sounds like the guys tried a little *too* hard on this one, and came up with the opposite result) are what really sink this album's quality on the whole for me. Not only that, the other few tracks are of mediocre quality.

In the end, the first five songs mentioned in the above paragraph are what I consider the strongest tracks on the album. The rest are either of mediocre quality, or worse. If you're new to Oasis, start with _Definitely Maybe_ or _(What's The Story) Morning Glory_? If you find that you love those, then you can decide whether or not you want to take the plunge into this great (but slightly spotty) 70 minutes-plus gargantuan. Who knows? You just may end of loving it.

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