Be Here Now - Oasis > Reviews > Least deserved

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money

Advantages:	Three top 10 singles
Disadvantages:	Poor planning, too long

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

With both ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’ being number one albums, it is no surprise to see Oasis’ third, ‘Be Here Now’ do the same.

D’You Know What I Mean – Great albeit flawed number one hit single for an opening track. Begins with the humming of a helicopter gradually getting louder with the instruments being added in slowly. The verses in this song are impressive, but the song is too long and consists of a lot of unnecessary background noises. (4/5)

My Big Mouth – Exploding quite aggressively almost immediately from the beginning, this is undoubtedly the hardest track on this album. The problem is, it is not that rocky, and it fails to impress. Luckily, it is not overly long. (2/5)

Magic Pie – The Noel Gallagher solo of this album. Very good, although not quite as good as ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, or some of the b-sides, such as ‘Talk Tonight’, ‘The Masterplan’. This song suffers badly from its poor planning which makes this song far too long. (3/5)

Stand By Me –The second single from this album which, although scoring one position lower than ‘D’You Know What I Mean’ and ‘All Around The World’, deserved better than the two as it is one of the few tracks on the album to get things right. Not too long, no ‘lacking’ instrumentals and nice accompaniment of the strings. (5/5)

I Hope, I Think, I Know – Quickest song on this album and a great one too. Also the shortest if you don’t count the reprise. This to me, has the albums best lyrics, with these great lines, “as we beg and steal and borrow, life is hit and miss and this”. (5/5)

The Girl In The Dirty Shirt – Exploding quite softly at the start, this track settles into a nice steady rhythm, with some great accompaniment from the piano and Noel’s backing vocals. It becomes a little untidy towards the end though, but remains as one of the few surprises of the album. (4/5)

Fade In-Out – The intro to this song is long and disappointing: it feels as if the song is wanting to burst out, but does not and starts in a really dull way. The song itself does not signify until it reaches the halfway point where Liam suddenly bursts out. Even still, the track fails to stand out and ends awfully, with no direction whatsoever towards the end. (2/5)

Don’t Go Away – A more laid-back track, this is probably the best track on the album. The song is quite moving and the lyrics are great, matching those of ‘I Hope, I Think, I Know’. Backed well with strings and not overly long, the song ends beautifully. (5/5)

Be Here Now – Title of the album with the least lyrically and a cheap nasty sounding melody, this is undoubtedly the worst track of the album. (1/5)

All Around The World – As a single I was surprised to see this hit the top spot. After all, out of all these tracks, this is definitely the one which has suffered the most from poor planning. The track is over 9 minutes long and it feels as though Oasis has pushed this track too far and are wanting to achieve a lot with this. (3/5)

It’s Getting Better (Man!!) – Another track to fall victim. Maybe if they thought about changing the bridge to ‘maybe the songs that we sing are long’ it would have felt more at home. Otherwise this isn’t too bad, with the guitars nicely ripping away at those instrumentals. (4/5)

All Around The World (Reprise) – An unexciting, pointless instrumental which really shows that Oasis were planning on pushing ‘All Around The World’ to become a favourite. Should have been left out. (2/5)

Unlike their previous albums ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory)’, this is the album which least deserved the number one spot. A lot of the songs on this album are badly ruined by its poor planning, making this a rather average album. So if life is hit and miss then this...a miss.