FEATURE:
D’You Know What I Mean?
Oasis' Be Here Now at Twenty-Five
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I remember the sense of anticipation…
IN THIS PHOTO: Oasis pictured in London in 1997/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky
and excitement there was in the air when Oasis announced their third studio album, Be Here Now. Released on 21st August, 1997, I want to look ahead to its twenty-fifth anniversary. Upon its released, there were so many emphatic, huge and glowing reviews. I think a lot of the media was reacting to what they were expecting, or the fact Be Here Now was so hyped. After their incredible first two albums, Definitely Maybe (1994) and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), maybe they thought it would be this faultless hat-trick. Running in at 71:33, Oasis’ third studio album was over-long. In need of an edit – one feels the band’s confidence and popularity meant they were writing long tracks -, Be Here Now has had a reassessment. Many now grade it down because of this reason, and the fact it does not contain as many classics as their first two albums. Regardless, Be Here Now in an important album that created such a buzz in 1997. A commercial success, Be Here Now topping the albums chart in fifteen countries. It was the biggest-selling album of 1997 in the U.K., with 1.47 million units sold that year. I am going to bring together a couple of contrasting reviews. I think that Be Here Now deserves celebration. I would recommend people pre-order the upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the album.
Before coming to a more positive review for Be Here Now, Drowned in Sound gave their balanced take. Definitely, when it came out in 1997, it seemed like an event – rather than a traditional album release. Be Here Now contains some classics like D’You Know What I Mean?, Stand By Me and All Around the World:
“A lot has been said - not least by Oasis themselves - about why the Mancunian titans' third album Be Here Now went so 'wrong'.
It is, for sure, a less good album than Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory, being in large part the sound of a band who'd made their name writing three-to-four-minute-long indie rock songs now trying to write seven-to-nine-minute-long indie rock songs, with indie-rock not being a genre especially supportive of that sort of length, especially from a group that were hardly virtuoso musicians. It also mostly lacks the aspirational rock'n'roll swagger that had defined their early work.
The obvious exception to both these rules was the awesome lead single 'D'You Know What I Mean?', on which the gargantuan running time was justified by the fantastically bombastic deployment of FX - morse code! Backwards vocals! - and lyrics that (insofar as they meant anything) seemed to exist as monument to the scale of the band's success ("all my people right here right now, d'you know what I mean?" - millions of people did). But it's the peak of the album by a long shot, and the generally accepted wisdom is that fame and its attendant drugs had buggered up songwriter Noel Gallagher’s muse.
But in many ways the absolute last thing that you should really blame Be Here Now's 'failure' on is the efforts of the musicians involved. Essentially Oasis turned in a third album less good than their first two albums. It may have been a disappointment, but if they hadn’t been so outlandishly massive it wouldn’t have been that a big deal. But Oasis had sold 5m copies of Morning Glory, and a substantial enough portion of the nation felt so invested in a third Oasis record being good that it convinced itself it was a masterpiece. Pretty much everyone was complicit: in the pre-digital era, music hacks who'd had weeks to listen to the record bestowed top marks upon it, almost across the board. When the 'D'You Know What I Mean?' single arrived at Radio One, it wasn't just played hourly - its B-sides were played hourly. National newspapers ran endless articles on the band, earnestly attempting to 'decode' the cover art as if there was some great hidden meaning. And while the public may or may not have been been given helping push into making it the fastest-selling album of all time (until last year), from what I observed of school friends' reactions, people seemed to love the record for a good few weeks, maybe months, before they realised they might not be playing it quite as much as its predecessors. Eventually the backlash emerged and the record was written off, but it gave people genuine pleasure for a summer, at least.
Though they would continue for another 12 years, Be Here Now essentially broke Oasis. While Pulp and Blur ran away from their Britpop-era success, Oasis never stopped trying to appease the multitudes that had bought their first two records. Though they would continue to be a big band, they would effectively become a nostalgia act from this point on - at their last ever gig, 12 of the 19 songs played were from the first two records and accompanying b-sides.
Nowadays this all feels like a distant tale from another age, and it should be easier to listen to the record with something like objectivity. But the truth is that it's hard to imagine it being made by a band not in their weird, impossible position. 'D'You Know What I Mean?' opens it in bombastically brilliant fashion. 'All Around the World' closes it interminably, a Beatles-y plodder far far far too enamoured of its expensive, cokey orchestra. In between there are definite moments, but the preponderance of very long songs makes it a slog to this day. That all accepted, it’s not like Noel had totally lost it: if you liked the early stuff, there’s no real reason why you’d have a problem with ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Don’t Go Away’, ‘The Girl in the Dirty Shirt’ et al, they just lack the romance of the early stuff”.
I want to finish by sourcing CLASH’s assessment of Be Here Now. When it turns twenty-five on 21st August, there will be a lot of new reviews and opinions about an album that definitely was met with praise in 1997:
“With new Oasis flick Supersonic currently taking us back to marvel at the mayhem of mid-’90s Britpop, this re-issue of the band’s third album couldn’t come at a more apt and inspirational time. At the time of its creation, Oasis were experiencing mammoth tabloid shit-storms, wayward band members and partying so hard at Supernova Heights (and beyond) they were temporarily banned from Abbey Road while recording ‘Be Here Now’.
Following up two of the greatest records of the ’90s is no easy task, but at the time it seemed Noel possessed the superhuman ability to toss away B-sides better than most bands can muster in their careers. The signs ‘Be Here Now’ would sound huge were all there at the end of extraordinary B-side ‘The Masterplan’, its outro and colossal string section signalling a new dawn for Oasis MKIII.
So when ‘Be Here Now’ did finally arrive, the public thirst for more Oasis couldn’t have been greater (yours truly queued outside Woolworths rocking a Parka jacket to bag a copy, along with everyone else of similar attire, thanks to Liam).
And so it begins, the slow-burning Tannoy crackles and chopper whirls of ‘D’yer Know What I Mean?’ – over-long for sure, but still excites to this day. As with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ and Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Chinese Democracy’, there was so much surrounding ‘Be Here Now’, it almost felt like people forgot this was merely a 12-track album. But can you imagine an Oasis set without the swirling Beatles homage ‘All Around The World’, ‘Stand By Me’ or the bruised beauty of ‘Don’t Go Away’? Us neither. It’s a bombastic, overblown and perhaps over-produced album, but it’s also what makes ‘Be Here Now’ great. Tracks like ‘I Hope I Think I Know’ still sound timeless, Noel’s squealing guitar lines skyrocketing, and you can almost hear producer Owen Morris’ eardrums exploding.
Loaded with fan-focused extras, this three-disc box set comes with all the extra demos, B-sides and alternate versions you could ever need (Disk two’s ‘(I Got) The Fever’ and the remastered ‘Flashbax’ are especially great). If anything, it’s a timely reminder of just how many tunes Oasis had at their disposal. A salute, then, to great times gone by, and – coupled with the Supersonic documentary – most fans will be hoping for more to come.
8/10”.
An album that, although not up there with Definitely Maybe or (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is a very important one. A bit over-long, it did at least spawn some terrific singles and showed that the Manchester band were full of conviction. Be Here Now caused mass queuing and hysteria when it was unveiled to the world back in August 1997. Almost twenty-five years later, songs from it are still being played regularly on radio. Even if some hit against Be Here Now or feel it is a bit overinflated, the third studio album from Oasis is…
MORE than worthy of love.