Be here now - that's an order. It will be issued by Noel Gallagher on August 18th, and industry insiders are predicting that it will be obeyed by at least 15 million obedient fans. The third Oasis album has become the most eagerly-awaited release of 1997.
Even before Oasis went into the studio, Noel was playing down the significance of the forthcoming new album, telling Radio 1's Jo Whiley, "We haven't started recording, but we have done the demos and they're all arranged and all that and we know now that it's as good as Morning Glory. I'm not saying it's gonna sell more or it's gonna have the same significance in English music as this album did, but once we get to the end of this year, Morning Glory for us is finished, and then we start a new era in the band like we did after Definitely Maybe."
The band elected to lie low and keep out of the public eye while they worked on the tracks in Abbey Road Studios, spiritual home of Noel's beloved Beatles. Soon after, however, they moved to Ridge Farm in Surrey, blaming too many leaks from Abbey Road, and they weren't talking about the plumbing. In November, Liam got busted for drugs in Oxford Street, but no one is sure if this wasn't just a decoy tactic to allow Noel time to nail down a tricky chord sequence. Two weeks ago, Oasis released their first single in 18 months, a seven-minute rocker entitled D'You Know What I Mean? It sold 600,000 copies in its first week of release, giving it the biggest first-week sales of any single this year. So we can safely say that interest in Oasis is still high. You can't switch on a radio these days without hearing the song chugging out over the airwaves, although even a cursory listen will confirm that Oasis are not exactly trying to break new ground here. What they are doing is hammering home the Oasis myth with a pile-driving force, and the new album is tailormade to crush any remaining opposition to their old-school rock hegemony.
Be Here Now is the Jurassic Park of Britpop - it's full of dazzling special effects and cinematic tricks, but ultimately it's a safe, predictable and not-very-scary story. Just what the kids want, really. Noel Gallagher has taken all the elements of Definitely Maybe and (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, tossed them together, and cranked them up to gargantuan proportions. The guitars are heavier and more earthshaking, the vocals are harder and more thunderous, and the arrangements are laid on thick. So turn off your mind, relax, and be here now.
Be Here Now
Track-by-Track
1. D'You Know What I Mean?
We certainly do, Noel. The first track opens with the sound of incoming aircraft, radar blips and looped samples, then hits the ground strutting. The riff is a rockier version of the Wonderwall chord sequence, but the song is on a completely different wavelength, rallying the Oasis faithful with lines like, All my people, right here, right now/ D'you know what I mean? Liam's voice is tightly-coiled and ready to pounce, and Noel's guitar is a battery of riffs and licks, ending in flurry of backward loops.
2. My Big Mouth
Even if you've heard this one live, you won't be prepared for the sheer power which the band throw behind this all-out rocker. Liam is in full sneer as he sings I'll put on my shoes while I'm walking slowly down the hall of fame. The lyrics are Noel's light-hearted attempt to address his own tendency to put his foot in it every time he talks to a tabloid. Oasis may not be bigger than God, but Noel's mouth certainly appears to be.
3. Magic Pie
Noel's only vocal on the album sees the elder Gallagher playing Paul McCartney to Liam's Lennon fixation, and it also hints that Noel may be starting to come up against the boundaries of his own song writing talent. It starts off sounding like a ballad, but then the guitars, drums and bass come crashing in, and soon every ingredient in the cookbook is being packed into this rock 'n' roll recipe. You see me, I've got my magic pie, is a plainly daft chorus, and I reckon this one will go stale fairly soon.
4. Stand By Me
A typically strident power-ballad from Oasis, Noel's guitars swooping around over the orchestra pit while the string arrangements send everything soaring to the ceiling. Liam's voice stands firm in the musical maelstrom, exhorting the listener to Stand by me, nobody knows the way it's gonna be before the band cut in with a clever lift from Mott The Hoople's All The Young Dudes.
5. I Hope, I Think, I Know
Another fast rocker in the vein of My Big Mouth, with all self-effacement swept aside: They tried hard to put me in my place/ And that is why I gotta keep running/ The future's mine and it's no disgrace/ 'Cos in the end their best means nothing. It's the perfect Oasis war-cry, a deadly kiss-off, and Liam sounds strong and defiant as he sings, You'll never forget my name.
6. The Girl In The Dirty Shirt
A strolling, tumbling beat over a seventh-chord riff, this is said to be Noel's ode to his long-time girlfriend, Meg Matthews, whom he married in Las Vegas recently. Liam sings it, so it could also double as a paean to Patsy. A rolling organ gives the song a funky, latter-day Beatles feel, as though the band recorded it on the roof of Abbey Road.
7. Fade In-Out
A slow, steady country-rock riff sets the scene with lots of slide guitars, sounding like a cross between The Grateful Dead, The Doors and Led Zeppelin. Get on the rollercoaster/ the fair's in town today/ you gotta be bad enough to beat the brave. On second thoughts, maybe it's more Bon Jovi circa Wanted Dead Or Alive.
8. Don't Go Away
Another near-perfect marriage between Noel's riff-dripping guitar, Liam's wounded little boy vocals, and a sympathetic orchestral arrangement. This is the lager lout's love song, all the more effective because it's so forceful. It's the sound of somebody standing in the doorway, blocking her escape and begging inarticulately for forgiveness.
9. Be Here Now
At the risk of getting chinned by Liam and Noel, this one sounds like it might have been a Blur song in another, parallel universe, and its whistling melody and highanxiety vocals make it the nearest thing to whimsy on the album. The lyrics are a confusion of apparently unconnected images, e.g. Wrap up cold when it's warm outside/ Please sit down you make me feel giddy/ Be my magic carpet ride/ Follow me down to capital city. Or summat like that.
10. All Around The World
This is the album's big, huge, epic, Christmas Number One tune, and Noel throws every Oasis trick into the album's rabble-rousing climax. These are crazy days, but they make me shine, sings Liam, perfectly summing up the story of Oasis to date. The chorus is your standard message of love, hope and unity, and it's followed by a Hey Jude-style "na na na" refrain. Then it goes completely into hyperspace, spinning in a mad orbit of strings, brass, organs, guitars, vocals, kitchen utensils, gardening tools and bits of debris which have been floating around in the upper atmosphere.
11. It's Getting Better (Man!!)
An upbeat, optimistic rocker to end the album, just in case anyone hasn't been completely vaporised by the laser love-beams of All Around The World. Like My Big Mouth, this one has doubled in strength since the band performed it onstage last summer, and it will be interesting to see if the band can match their new studio power in a live setting.
12. All Around The World (Reprise)
The mothership returns for one last orbit of its new kingdom, providing a suitably cinematic closing theme for Oasis's megaton third album. This is Oasis to the power of 10 in your face and in their stride. They've got their sound, they've got their style, and they're still mad for it. It's not original - it doesn't have to be. All Oasis have to do is be right here, right now, and they can't help but be their best.