Oasis

Be Here Now

High on fame

Review Score:

(4/10)
Picture it. Your first album knocked everyone off their feet. Your second album propelled you to superstardom, and before you knew it the country was swaying drunkenly to your music. I suppose anyone would get ahead of themselves. And Oasis, with this third, somewhat regretted album from the Boys from Burnage, did.
On the plus side, each song isn't bad on it's own. I could easily listen to My Big Mouth on it's tod, or Fade In/Out singled out. But in succession, these laughably overlong wannabe-epics feel ludicrous and out of place.
The thing about epics is that they should be on their own, after a succession of sweeter, shorter songs. I mean Champagne Supernova sat at the end of ...Morning Glory, proving the perfect, calm yet dizzying end to an almost stupidly popular album. But an album of Champagne Supernovas would just be silly... and here it is.
When it's good, however, it's very good. D'You Know What I Mean is fantastic... perhaps the album's second only song that probably deserves it's length. It's like a slower, slightly downbeat Morning Glory. The other is All Around the World. Yeah I know, 9 minutes is a joke... but it's uplifting. Like the album, only it rarely lulls and ends with a beautiful coda that I personally prefer to Hey Jude.
One odd thing is that the singles are good, but the rest feels like filler. Although I consider The Girl In The Dirty Shirt and Fade In/Out excellent, in comparison to the powerful Don't Go Away and cheery Stand By Me, they look like jumped up B-sides. So the album comes to seem like a collection of rather substandard songs stretched to stupid length. And Magic Pie comes as the token-song-I-hate. For ...Morning Glory it was Hey Now. Here it's Magic Pie. Long, dull, no discernable message... it's just Noel rambling, knowing what he's talking about and not caring if we're clueless. Even so, it's Liam's favourite of the album. I guess it just bores me.
There's still quality here. The title track is good, and It's Getting' Better (Man!!) is wonderfully fresh after All Around the World. But the album desperately needs to have been more sensible, more contained. Oasis need to remember that although good, and now infamous, they're not Gods. And that no-one short of some infinitely patient monk living in a mountain would have patience to sit through 70 minutes of overblown B-Side-esque material. Easily their weakest album.

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