So why is Oasis’ Be Here Now on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
I lived about an hour east of London for about six months in the late 1990s, and it was the era when Oasis and Blur were the biggest Big Deal bands in the land.
Be Here Now, released in the late summer of 1997, came out several months after I returned to the U.S., and so in a slightly odd way it still feels like the “newer” Oasis album to me*.
* This feels like a topic custom made for the great pop culture writer and personality Chuck Klosterman to explore, the personal relationships we all have with music and other artforms with relation to what feels “new” versus “old” to us and what it might mean.
Taking a step back though, for me Be Here Now is the final great album that Oasis produced.
And man, it sure is an ambitious album too, both in terms of its arena-shaking “big” sound and the way that its songs are meticulously crafted in studio to take on epic form in terms of length and sound.
Speaking of length, four of the album’s tracks clock in at over seven minutes. The best of these is “D’You Know What I Mean?” which, like most of Oasis’ best songs, leans heavily on Beatles-inspired melodies while amping up the guitars and overall “wall of sound” to create one of the premier Britpop singles.
And also like all the best Oasis songs, it’s highly hummable and heavily singalong-able whether it be at the arena or the late night pub scene.
All my people right here, right now
D’you know what I mean?
Do I know what they mean? Who cares, the song is great.
By this point, Oasis had established a bit of a tradition of closing albums with a long, slightly slower, upbeat number. For Definitely Maybe, it’s “Slide Away,” for What’s The Story (Morning Glory)? it’s “Champagne Supernova,” and on Be Here Now it’s the nine minutes-plus “All Around the World.” And for what it’s worth, the latter is the best of these, a sweet, clean-sounding, and Beatles-y tune that evolves into transcendent celebratory levels.
“The Girl in the Dirty Shirt” grows on me every time I hear it. It’s kind of a smasher deep cut in mid-tempo Britpop/alt rock form. Noel Gallagher’s song writing must be called out here; it’s very strong. And then of course brother Liam’s vocals are singular in giving Oasis its signature sound.
Some stats & info about Oasis – Be Here Now
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, British Bands, Britpop, Alternative Rock, Pub Rock
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Be Here Now released? 1997
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #476 out of 1,000
Oasis’ Be Here Now on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Oasis’ Be Here Now that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Look into the wall of my mind’s eye. I think I know but I don’t know why. The questions are the answers you might need.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.