3 out of 5

Label: Creation
Producer: Owen Morris, Noel Gallagher

At any given point, ‘Be Here Now’ is an amazing splash of bombast.  Opening with the building, thumping ‘D’you Know What I Mean?’ it seems like you’re in for an album that takes the momentum of Oasis’ previous releases and just explodes it into an epic…  But, as that song rattles to a rather sudden conclusion after seven minutes then butts into the equally noisy ‘My Big Mouth,’ a different feeling start to creep in.  Namely: that this is all rather excessive.  I agree with Noel’s take on the record – not his outright hatred of it – but his confrontation of it as a drug-fueled splatter of space-filling guitar licks and simple lyrics.  There’s not a clear single on ‘Be Here,’ but the flipside of that means that sifting through one song at a time shows the strength of the group’s songwriting even when all cracked out… the slippery style of ‘Fade In-Out,’ the nine-minute reach-for-the-rafters cheer of ‘All Around the World…’  It’s just a noisy fucking album, though, and lacks definable hooks, trading it for random guitar solos and layered upon layered upon layered production.  Repeated listens makes the differences in the songs a bit more apparent, and the tracks that choose to emphasize a stripped down rhythm become the standouts.  Liam’s lyrics never really struck a chord for me, but they also seem especially distant and linear here, despite the same conviction in his singing he brought to the table for ‘Story’ and ‘Maybe’.

It was at the first peak of troubles for the band, and methinks they got a pass from a lot critics just for being Oasis, but otherwise this is a good record, just not a very clearly defined one on any given level.  However, ‘Be Here Now’ has its place in one’s collection (as Brit-rock/pop and as an Oasis album) for the power found in any given song here, as well as the obvious talent fueling all the excess.  Listening to it in one go can become a bit of a wash, but when that random track comes on shuffle, it’ll merit a toe-tapping ‘fuck yeah’.  (And then the dispirited ‘oh, right,’ when you try to ‘rediscover’ the album.)