Be Here Now

Review by Michael O'Donahue

Blood on the trax / the fool on the hill / don't look back / the long and winding road / sleeping with the enemy / stand by me / Helter Skelter / magic carpet ride / let it be

- bits taken from Be Here Now's lyric sheet

Noel Gallagher: plagiarist or name-dropper? I can't decide. He may not do it electronically, but Oasis songwriter (and guitarist) Noel Gallagher is a World Class Sampler, and it's that quality that these backwards-looking Brits seem remarkably modern. GOD ONLY KNOWS how these guys can BRING IT ON HOME in a way that can CATCH ME WHEN I FALL. D'YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

Soundwise, this album is... very, very looooonnng. Seven-minute opening track... lengthy opuses everywhere. But other than the extend-o-mixness and the SGT. PEPPER type post-production tack-ons, it's pretty much Oasis as usual, if a little fatigued-sounding.

Fatigued, except for one -- just one -- song: "I Hope, I Think, I Know." As long as you don't look too deeply into it, this one tune has enough Zip to warrant more than the professionally-required first listen.

So there you go -- Oasis may be BIGGER THAN JESUS NOW, but even they obey the Queen's British Rock Decree that each band shalt have one good song per album.