Well, I’m pretty sick. And I’m having to sit in on a Friday night. It’s a cryin’ shame really. (If you really want to leave any sympathies in my comment section, then I won’t complain.) Know what I do when I’m sitting in? I pull out a CD or two that I haven’t listened to in quite a bit and give them a spin. It just so happened that tonight Oasis’s third album Be Here Now was the album that came to the front.

Now, we all know the general Oasis story, their timeline. It’s just that some people’s opinions differ on how good, bad or indifferent they were at certain points. I must say that I think their debut Definitely Maybe (1994) and What’s The Story (Morning Glory) (1996) are both pretty great albums. At the start of their career, they had a cocky, youthful swagger, and they earned it. Everything that came after this CD I find to be unbearably awful. They now sound like simply a bunch of old, dried-up musicians rehashing old formulas and chord patterns, and continually stealing other people’s ideas. As for 1997’s Be Here Now, it’s sorta the middle ground for the band. It’s their indifferent album. Sometimes it can seem really inspiring, but most of the time it’s fairly generic, unoriginal and typical Oasis trash.

Oasis is (1998) Liam Gallagher (vocals, tambourine??), Noel Gallagher (vocals, guitar), “Bonehead” (guitar), “Guigsy” (bass) and “Whitey” (drums).

Note the inclusion of idiotic nicknames

Track Listing

1. D’You Know What I Mean?
2. My Big Mouth
3. Magic Pie
4. Stand By Me
5. I Hope, I Think, I Know
6. The Girl In The Dirty Shirt
7. Fade In-Out
8. Don’t Go Away
9. Be Here Now
10.All Around The World
11.It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!) Note the inclusion of idiotic interjection
12.All Around The World (Reprise)

D’You Know What I Mean is one of the stronger tracks to begin on. It begins with about a minute or so of random electronic bleeps and blips. The drums and guitar finally kick in, and it turns into a big, distorted, noised-up rocker from there on in. The drums resonate nicely here, almost echoic. Liam has his typical snarl in the chorus, but the lead-up to the chorus is probably the highlight, the guitars pick up and start to play a snazzy little hook. Unfortunately they somehow manage to stretch this out for seven minutes, which is truly not needed. My Big Mouth is fairly generic, and again incredibly noisy and drowned in feedback. It is pretty decent though, the choruses always got stuck in my head. Magic Pie is a weirder number, very trippy and psychedelic, with some lilting melodic guitar coupled with intricate picking. This doesn’t last however, it soon kicks into another fuzz-rocker. One of my favourites actually, although the vocals seem other-worldly at points (Noel sings here). Stand By Me is Don’t Look Back In Anger part two. There would be many additions to this series later on in Oasis’ career. A heartfelt rock ballad (although this one does actually seem heartfelt), and one of the band’s finest actually. The guitars again play some lovely melodic hooks, and it is pretty beautiful actually.

Made a meal and threw it up on Sunday
I’ve got a lot of things to learn
Said I would and I’ll be leaving one day
Before my heart starts to burn

Now the album fades for a little bit. I Hope, I Think, I Know is an entertaining enough romp, but it sounds like anything from the previous album. The Girl In The Dirty Shirt is more of a mid-tempo number, that has a plodding, punching style, with big cheesy guitar chords. But it’s not good at all. Fade In-Out and Don’t Go Away carry similar styles, but the former is the more impressive, having a laid-back acoustic feel for the most part. The latter features some Pink Floyd-esque guitar bursts (and I hate to mention their name in conjunction with Oasis), but the song itself is fairly weak and sounds fake (again typical of the band). The title track is a lot of fun, bouncy and metallic, that is up until the chorus, where it turns bland and tuneless. The lyrics are fairly laughable as well. And the cheesy whistling definitely needs to go.

Wrap up cold when it’s warm outside
Your sh*t jokes remind me of Digsy’s

Then they go for the true epic. All Around The World is a classic Oasis song, but why they feel the need to drag and drag it on for almost ten minutes is beyond me. It has a lovely acoustic flavour and punchy drums as backing, and the rawer more electric guitars take the forefront. All stages of the song are excellent, especially the lead-in to the choruses. Just listen to the way Liam says the word “shine”. It’s more like ”sheee-aaaa-iii-ne”. You’ve gotta love him sometimes. Actually, no you don’t. However, if they chopped the last five minutes off this song it would be infinitely better. It’s Getting’ Better (Man!!) has the worst title ever, but the song is actually fairly enjoyable. More noise rock here, that we haven’t really heard since the first few tracks. This one is the ultimate noisy track though. The guitars are extremely fuzzed-out, and it is a lot of fun to listen to. Very sing-along. Oh, if you didn’t get enough of All Around The World the first time, they tack a pointless little reprise on at the end. Words fail me sometimes.


As you may have gathered, this album isn’t the most interesting thing out there. There are certainly a few Oasis classics contained on it, but there is some terribly generic tripe that the band has done before all too often. This one gets an average rating. Simply because there’s nothing that will make you say “Wow!” but then again there’s nothing that will make you want to collapse on the floor and start rending your garments in fury. Try to pick it up for the better songs at least, everything else is throwaway.

Excellent: NONE
Good: D’You Know What I Mean, My Big Mouth, Magic Pie, Stand By Me, All Around The World, It’s Getting’ Better (Man!!)
Average: I Hope,I Think,I Know, Fade In-Out, Be Here Now
Weak: The Girl In The Dirty Shirt, Don’t Go Away, All Around The World (Reprise)

Final Rating: 11/20


Recommended: No