Be Here Now

by

Oasis

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Unbridled arrogance, excess, and obnoxiousness. Also known as, the essence of rock 'n' roll! This amazing album is larger, longer, and louder than life. It's almost too much to take in all at once; I can understand why so many people just can't get their heads around it. But give "Be Here Now" a chance and you will find smart songwriting, great melodies, and stellar musicianship. The arrogance is justified.

"D'You Know What I Mean?" is an absolute monster, a swaggering psychedelic epic so huge it leaves you almost too exhausted to continue. Definitely one of the coolest album openers ever and one of my personal all-time favorite songs. But that's just the beginning.

"My Big Mouth" is the sound of 24 blazing guitar tracks all turned up to 11, with drums and vocals fighting furiously to catch up for the 5-minute running time (and it's one of the shorter tracks!). "Magic Pie" is the album's second 7-minute epic, featuring a soaring chorus, an excellent Noel Gallagher vocal performance, and a long found-sound coda. "Stand by Me" and "I Hope, I Think, I Know" are anthemic stadium rockers that keep the adrenaline level high.

From here the album dips back into '60s psychedelia for "The Girl in the Dirty Shirt" and the epic (see how that word keeps coming up?) "Fade In-Out." "Don't Go Away" finally scales back the guitar pyrotechnics for some tender acoustic plucking and a beautiful, wistful melody backed by bombastic strings and horns. The title track, "All Around the World," and "It's Gettin' Better (Man!!)" return to blisteringly loud guitars and huge, anthemic choruses. Finally, "All Around the World (Reprise)" takes us out with an orchestral restatement of the song's outro and the sound of a door closing. (Between the song proper and the reprise, that's almost 12 minutes of "All Around the World." Wow.)

This record has certainly taken a beating over the years, but it really doesn't deserve the bad reputation. Take another listen to "Definitely Maybe" and "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?"-- isn't the bombast and brashness part of the charm? "Be Here Now" just takes that musical philosophy beyond the limits of common sense, to its lunatic extreme. Sometimes bigger actually is better, and "Be Here Now" is as big as rock music gets.

Oasis achieved phenomenal success with the release of their 1995 album "(What's the Story) Morning Glory," but then followed the unfortunate trend of having their next album suffer. Still, "Be Here Now" has its moments. The best song on here is obviously "All Around the World". It's long, pretentious, and has a stunning music video to go along with it; it's reminiscent of the Guns N' Roses' song "November Rain". The album also houses "The Girl in the Dirty Shirt," which is the nasaliest of any song Liam's sung before or since. The rest of the album is mostly just OK, making this a major disappointment given the brilliance of their last album. Oasis completists will want this album; everybody else would be wise to just buy "All Around the World" as a single and leave it at that.