Oasis

Be Here Now

This album is severly underrated

Review Score:

(10/10)
Few people outside the uk can appreciate the impact that oasis had on British music. To put it simply, it was awful. Until one day in early 1994, we caught a glimpse of the band that changed it all.
Their first album was brilliant, with four great singles including the classics live forever and supersonic. It also had great songs such as 'Bring It On Down' and 'Columbia'. The follow up, (whats the story) morning glory? was the biggest selling album in britain in the 90's and one of the biggest ever. It wasn't as good as the first in my eyes, but the singles 'some might say', 'wonderwall', and 'roll with it'all became anthems that still get huge airplay here 9 years later, and 'don't look back in anger' was voted in the top 7 singles of all time.
So they'd done it, they conquered Britain and most of the world. The hardest thing now was the follow up. When Be Here Now was released in the UK the queues outside the record stores stretched for hundreds of metres. However, people were very quick to write it off. The opening track, 'd'yer know what i mean' is a really catchy tune, with a great bridge and chorous, and the 7 mins just fly by. 'My Big Mouth' is a loud, mainly tuneless air guitar track that is one of my favourites.
'Magic Pie' is probably the weakest track, and at 7 mins is far too long. Although Noels voice sounds good on it, it could probably have been left out for another song that didn't make it onto the album, such as 'stay young' or 'ive got the fever'.

The next two tracks are probably the stand outs. 'Stand by me' would have reached number 1 in England, though due to the tragic death of princess Diana and the success of the charity single it missed out by a few thousand copies. It is a beautiful slow ballad with an anthem chorus. 'I hope, I think, I know'is a fast, uplifting, pop-rock tune with a great melody and another brilliant chorus.
'The girl in the dirty shirt' and 'fade-in out'are both good songs, the latter famous because it features the actor johnny depp on guitar towards the end of the track. 'Don't go away' is another classic, although never released here it is a great rock ballad and gets huge airplay on most rock stations here. The title track is the customary 'fun track 9' song on the album, and has a nice little whistle bit in it.
'all around the world is another number 1 in the uk, although i dont know what the band were on when they recorded it, as it goes on for almost ten minutes. The next track is also a mammoth effort, at 7 mins again, although this time it is my favourite on the cd and anyone who likes rock music will love it.
In all, this album lives up to the reputation the first two created. It is a must have in any decent record collection, and it remains the highest selling Britpop record of all time, and the fastest selling ever in the world. Buy It.

More Reviews: