Oasis' Third Album ("Be Here Now") Failed To Live Up To Expectations, Despite Having Some Isolated Great Moments. Love The Rolls Royce In The Pool, By The Way. And So Did Keith Moon, Of Course.

The traditionally hard album for every band was to be even harder for Oasis, who had to live up to the dazzling standards they previously set on “Definitely Maybe” and “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?”. This time around, though, the band was too far gone into drugs and fast living, and they were to try everybody’s patience. The lack of temperance was what broke the album’s back, as a vast majority of compositions clock at over 7 or 8 minutes.

That running time is merited only once, on the opening “D’You Know What I mean?”. It was the album’s first single and Oasis’ third chart topper. Noel seriously let rip in the solo, and the accompanying video was phenomenal.

The other number one yielded by “Be Here Now” was “All Around The World”. That was a song which had been around for a long, long time. The date of composition can be set after the “Definitely Maybe” album, probably around the days of “Whatever” (one of their finest non-albums singles, savagely left off “The Masterplan”). Noel refused to record it until they could afford to do it as elegantly as he had envisioned. Too bad he had to stretch it over 11 minutes. Not even the three key changes can make it more appealing in the end, and the “Hey Jude” comparison is too obvious, too gratuitous and too true to be avoided. Continue reading →