Customer Reviews
Oasis's Pepper
And considering the time frame for they're favorite group this has to be considered this group's Masterpiece. This was actually better than what most will tell you. Simply put some of us were not waiting for Morning Glory 2. And the imagination put forth on this is simply stunning. "Magic Pie" is unmatched for sound and beauty and I can't think of another one of they're CD's that makes me return over and over again. No this is not what may be considered what made them "Fimiliar to Millions". This, and I dread this word is "Art". Check it.
Stand By Thee
Upon my ears' receiving it, I was floored by this album's massive sound. This album solidified my love of Oasis from an early inkling of appreciation fostered by the rock radio standard "Champagne Supernova" from two years prior. The opening track "D'You Know What I Mean?" lifts the minor chord progression from the pseudo-love song and eminent Oasis hit "Wonderwall" and turns it into a grandiose epic; almost too big of a song to NOT be played in a football stadium at full blast. From there, the tracks remain relentless.
The album seems to scoff at you: "if rock music isn't big, its not worthwhile". Oddly enough, all of these songs are despised by their author Noel Gallagher, (with the possible exception of "Stand By Me" which the band continues to play live) who seemed to take the music community's criticism of the album's perceived pretentiousness to heart and blamed the million-multi-layered guitars and non-radio friendly song lengths on the coke binge that apparently permeated the recording sessions. It is a shame that Noel and Co. decided to become self-conscious, (with the exception of Liam, who is still convinced that he's John Lennon incarnate) and looking at what followed, the general disappointments begin to add up. (Heathen Chemistry, most notably). At least coattail riders JET seemed to have picked up the arrogance slack with their attempt at Oasisism; "Shine On".
Universally seen as the beginning of the end of Oasis' popularity in the states, "Be Here Now" remains my favorite, perhaps stubbornly so. It is the album of a band who thinks it is the greatest and is out to prove it, but if they ultimately can't convince you of that fact, then the Gallagher bros. kindly ask you to bugger off. Cockiness, while eventually leading to delusions of grandeur in Oasis' case, still can produce a sound that displays no reservations; showcasing only the unabashed verve, (apologies to Richard Ashcroft) of a band holding nothing back.
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Self Indulgent But Still Damn Good
However, ten years later after all the hype and smoke has cleared, this has emerged as a great album in it's own right. After having done two of the best albums of the 90's with the Definately Maybe and Morning Glory albums, expectations were sky high on this album and it was indeed deemed a failure at the time. Actually, it only ever had one problem and it wasn't the songs which are chock full of great melodies and great guitar licks. No, it wasn't the songs themselves but rather the length of the songs. The average song runs 6 to 9 minutes long on here with no purpose or reason whatsoever. It was like they felt every song had to be a rock anthem like Stairway To Heaven or Layla or something. By their own admission, they were so coked up and drunk at the time, it's lucky they even came up with an album at all. They were literally drunk on their own success and slipped into excess. The production is way over the top. Why stop at 4 or 5 guitar overdubs when you can put a massive orchestra on top of that as well? If you strip it all down to the songs and melodies, there is actually a great album here somewhere and all the songs stand up quite well. I would have to recommend it to Oasis fans only due to it's self indulgent nature but one can't fault the timeless melodies of Noel Gallagher and the great playing of this band. .
. You can see a complete list of all Oasis discography, or go back to the Oasis tabs
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