There are Boo-Boo Albums, then there are super Boo-Boo Albums, then there’s Be Here Now by Oasis.
Critics hailed Be Here Now as a modern classic on it’s release in 1997 – possibly because they wrote off (What’s The Story) Morning Glory and were proved wrong – and the third Oasis album remains to this day the fastest-selling album in history.
Thing is, though, it’s rubbish.
It’s hard to sit through Be Here Now in one go. It’s just so long. In the 72 minutes that it takes to get from the start of D’you Know What I Mean? to the end of the reprise of All Around The World, you could have listened to both Rubber Soul and Revolver – 28 Beatles songs or 11 Oasis songs? Your choice.
As you’d have guessed, each song goes on and on and on… about six
minutes each. And it’s a shame – at the heart of it, there were a few
decent songs on Be Here Now; the title track and It’s Gettin’ Better Man would stand up on most albums. It’s just they’re all so bloody long.
And bloated, too. The first single, D’you Know What I Mean?,
started with helicopter noise, went through three guitar solos,
backwards singing and finished on a squalling morse code fade-out. All Around The World featured two full orchestras. Fade In-Out had Johnny Depp twanging away on slide guitar. "This," you were meant to think "is the most important record you will ever hear in your puny mortal lives".
The cover of the album was enough of a giveaway – the band standing
outside a mansion surrounded by hollow symbols of notoriety – all Rolls
Royces in swimming pools and clocks without hands (‘timeless’, do you
see?).
The night before the album was released, there was a 40-minute
documentary on the band – one of the longest undiluted commercials for
a forthcoming album of all time – and it aired on BBC1. And it managed
to get people so excited that they ran to Our Price as soon as they
opened in the morning to get this golden slice of heaven. 696,000 copies of the album were sold in Britain in the first three days of release.
Then people listened to it. And started to skip Magic Pie. Then they’d skip The Girl In The Dirty Shirt. Then I Hope, I Think, I Know. Then they’d just put the album away.
There are loads of reasons why Be Here Now is a Boo-Boo Album. Most obviously, at that point in time Oasis were so popular
that nobody could tell them to pull things back a little. That’s why
the songs are so long and full of so many overdubs. The band seemed to
be fuelled on success. And cocaine, naturally.
Another reason for it’s failure might have been it’s timing. A month after it came out, Princess Diana got killed in Paris, and all of a sudden everyone decided that they liked sad songs instead. The Verve brought out The Drugs Don’t Work and had outsold Oasis by the end of the year. Robbie Williams released Angels (because, you know, Diana’s an angel and stuff now) and became a megastar. Be Here Now sounded too confrontational, and was full of cocky lines like "You’ll never forget my name". Their charming arrogance suddenly sounded a little spiteful.
Pre Boo-Boo Album: Oasis ruled the world.
Post Boo-Boo Album: Be Here Now was disowned by Oasis,
two members left the band, Oasis went on to record an even worse album
and started to rely on touring the old hits. Liam Gallagher had his picture taken holding the hand of Spongebob Squarepants.
[story by Stuart Heritage]
rob says
u cant really take any one seriously who uses the phrase “boo boo”
Jeffrey Gilliams says
cunt, sly cunt
Jeffrey Gilliams says
cunt, sly cunt
Alejandro Zimmermann says
your all crazy!!!!!!!
name me the best 10 albums of british rock since 1997………i bet Be Here Now appears there, listen to Stand by me, or Don’t go away…..you don’t get any classics of those in any album today nor will until the oasis attitude gets back to it’s top………..
Hamburglar says
stuart, you’ve lost your marbles. this band is one of the few great brit bands that has lasted for more than 10 yrs. you don’t see travis, blur, pulp, supergrass, dodgy, etc playing to crowds of 100,000 after that many yrs. dick!
Michael Jackson says
This is the best review of Be Here Now I ever read. I wish I read it in 1997 and saved myself 10 quid.
Bless you.
boo is a cunt says
this is a joke. Any album realeased by the best band in britain since the beatles is just pure class. Listen to songs like stand by me and dont go away and youll shut up you studid student!
Anonymous says
Best band in britain since the Beatles? Don’t make me laugh. Even Noel said this album was shit. And it is. Good review Stu.
joke review says
1. Do you know what I mean? -Brilliant
2. My big mouth – Good
3. Magic pie – ok
4. Stand by me – Brilliant
5. I hope, I think, I know – Good
6. The girl in the dirty shirt – Good
7. Fade in-out – Brilliant
8. Don’t go away – BRILLIANT
9. Be here now – Good
10. All around the world – MEGA
11. It’s gettin’ better man – Good
12. All around the world (reprise)
Overall hte album is brilliant. You are a cretin
joke review says
1. Do you know what I mean? -Brilliant
2. My big mouth – Good
3. Magic pie – ok
4. Stand by me – Brilliant
5. I hope, I think, I know – Good
6. The girl in the dirty shirt – Good
7. Fade in-out – Brilliant
8. Don’t go away – BRILLIANT
9. Be here now – Good
10. All around the world – MEGA
11. It’s gettin’ better man – Good
12. All around the world (reprise)
Overall hte album is brilliant. You are a cretin
Dan says
It’s a very poor album, Oasis by numbers if you like. The beginning of their decline into a band who are now creatively irrelevant. Only diehard Oasis fans could think this was brilliant and I suspect that even they would prefer the previous two albums. Oh, and for people like ‘hamburglar’ and ‘joke review’, accept the fact that the writer has a different opinion than you and get over it..
Jago says
it sounds like this person hasnt even heard the album and is writing a review based on wat he read off another reviewer who thought easier to put them down than to actually listen.Its my fave oasis album and fave album of all time.People should just live with the fact that oasis are prob in the beat and biggest 3 bands of all time i dont know whether people are jealous or what
Burlington says
Come on, each to their own and all that…I personally think all Oasis albums are rubbish and I’ve got them all. I have them because there are odd songs that I like…and there’s only ‘All Around the World’ from ‘Be Here Now’ that I like so I guess that’s the most rubbish of them all.
They’ve done some cracking stuff recently though, ‘Little by Little’ was genius. Is it me or are the songs sung by Noel a million times better than the warblings of Liam?
Blacklitman says
I think you guys should take it easy on Oasis.. I mean seriously, if any of you were in a band that put out the fastest-selling debut album, the second biggest-selling album, and the fastest-selling album in the history of the UK, i think you would have a bit of a cocky attitude as well. I know I would. Let me tell it like it is: Be Here Now is NOT the best Oasis album. It would probably tie in third place with Don’t believe the truth or Heathen Chemistry. Oasis definitely put songs on this album that are a long way from their days of glory (morning glory that is). However, what youre all doing is you’re comparing this album to 2 previous mega albums that dwarf any effort by any other band at the time or even today. Your expectations were very high for this one, and when it failed to live up to the hype, you were disappointed and wrote off Oasis. Now, it may not be their best, but it certainly is a strong album and stands on its own, if you allow it to. I mean, after the first million copies sold, why would people buy another 7 million copies after hearing the criticsm that followed? Stop comparing all the post-95 Oasis albums to what they did before then. Fact of the matter is: they’re never gonna make another Definitely Maybe or Morning Glory. Not because they cant, but because they dont want to. Theyre a relatively experimental band (proof of this is their latest release, Dont Believe The Truth). Whats the point of another album full of Wonderwalls anyway? We already have one and i think thats enough. Why Noel Gallagher opted to put his best work on B-sides, I will never know. He couldve had an album quite possibly bigger than Morning Glory had he used songs like Acquiesce, Round Are Way, Listen Up, Masterplan, Cloudburst, Lets All Make Believe,Its Good To Be Free, Stay Young, Fade Away, and Talk Tonight instead of disposing of them the way that he did. But nonetheless, the point is: he wrote these songs. They belong to Oasis and theyre classics in their own right. Just because they werent released as A-sides doesnt mean they dont exist. Listen to them and tell me what you think of Oasis then. Im not saying all their new stuff is rubbish, as some of you put it, either. On the contrary, I think Heathen Chemistry was a great album, and their truest return to form since Morning Glory. I think SOTSOG was written off unfairly. It had some excellent tracks worthy of our attention but chances are no one even gave it a real listen since BHN failed to follow the success of its predecessors. DBTT is a new direction for the band. In my opinion, its a solid album and, I for one, cant wait to hear more of their new stuff. I cant predict where theyre going to next. Oasis are still one of the top bands in the world today and hardly anything by the mediocre bands of this generation comes even close to anything by Oasis.
T Nicholson says
Be Here Now isn’t necessarily a boo-boo album. It’s certainly not the world-changing event it was hyped to be. IT has some good songs, and some poor songs. Merely because it isn’t a ‘Morning Glory’ or ‘Definitely Maybe’ doesn’t make it total crap.
I can, however, see your point.
Magic Pie is really just painful. One of Noel’s weakest vocal melodies strateched to absolute breaking point and beyond over the course of 7 minutes (7!)
The over-production is the way it is because everyone was totally off their faces and no-one wnated to upset the biggest group in Britain since the Roses. Even Noel had doubts as the album neared completion, but it was too late at that point to do anything about it.
The majority of the album is Oasis plagirising Oasis. Don’t Go Away, as mentioned in another comment, starts eerily similarly to Slide Away, and Stand By Me features the same verse melody as Married With Children. In the title track, Liam lapses into the same ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ coda as in Columbia.
It’s not without it’s charms though – It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!) is a rush of adrenaline that actually (almost) justifies it’s ridiculous running time. D’You Know What I Mean? (minus the stupid effects and helicopter noises at the start and end) could have been a really brilliant comeback single after their last one, Don’t Look Back In Anger.
Overall, it’s an album that cannot help but pale in comparison to their first two albums, but has it’s own merits. It’s just that it’s hard to hear them through the noise.
sam says
Be Here Now isn’t a classic album. But it CERTAINLY isn’t a ‘boo-boo’ album. The bad thing about it is, it isn’t Morning Glory. Or Definitely Maybe. Oasis kind of shot themselves in the foot by making their first two albums so incredibly amazing. No band could’ve lived up to the expectation they had on their shoulders, except maybe The Beatles. I really like this album though. Don’t Go Away is one of the BEST Oasis tracks ever, period. All Around The World is great, albeit about 4 minutes too long. The same goes for D’you Know What I Mean. It has a couple of stinkers (Magic Pie, The Girl In The Dirty Shirt, Be Here Now, etc), but that shouldn’t make the album a failure. It was named the 22nd best album of all time in 2008 poll by Q Magazine, so i reckon that it still has a special place in many peoples’ hearts.
ken says
for me this album has always rated highly. whats wrong with making a 72 minute epic when overall the song writing is of a high standard. liams vocals also reached their pinnacle of quality on this record.