Thanks so much for posting this! Remember reading it at the time. Paul du Noyer also wrote the sleeve notes for the Masterplan a year later.
This and the MOJO review (by Charles Shaar Murray) were among the most positive write-ups, I think. I don't have it any more unfortunately, but the MOJO one had a great illustration of the band depicted as a football team in a "Roy of the Rovers"-type comic strip. I do remember that in the review there was a lot said about the millions of guitar overdubs and that it would be the band's world domination album.
Post by themanwithnoname on Apr 1, 2014 22:04:53 GMT 9.5
It's hilarious how wrong the music press got it when it came to Oasis album reviews. Morning Glory got lukewarm reviews to say the least, then they lauded Be Here Now - only for the music-buying public to quickly realise it wasn't much cop.
A salutary lesson that most of the time critics don't know their arse from their elbow and are merely saying what they think people want to hear or they believe to be the general perception at the time.
A salutary lesson that most of the time critics don't know their arse from their elbow and are merely saying what they think people want to hear or they believe to be the general perception at the time.
I'm pretty sure I can think of a couple of 2013-2014 albums that were critically acclaimed, but will get the same treatment as BHN in a few years. (Or at least deserve to.) That being said, I still think BHN is closer to what the first reviews thought it was than to the exceedingly negative image it seems to have now. Still a great album.
Never be afraid of the obvious because it's all been done before.
A salutary lesson that most of the time critics don't know their arse from their elbow and are merely saying what they think people want to hear or they believe to be the general perception at the time.
I'm pretty sure I can think of a couple of 2013-2014 albums that were critically acclaimed, but will get the same treatment as BHN in a few years. (Or at least deserve to.) That being said, I still think BHN is closer to what the first reviews thought it was than to the exceedingly negative image it seems to have now. Still a great album.
I think the truth lies somewhere between the two. It wasn't the disaster it's been painted because it has the likes of DYKWIM, Stand By Me, Don't Go Away and the Girl in the Dirty Shirt on it, but it was still a huge disappointment.
could be BHN of ever lived up to expectations though? I think they should of taken more time over it but I still think it would of been regarded as a step down. I think they got to a place where they could only go downwards, too much hype.
the only thing that might of done it would been stuff from the masterplan (if the songs hadnt already been released)
DYNWIM acquiesce stand by me rockin chair underneath the sky dont go away the masterplan my big mouth all around the world its gettin better man
Found Charles Shaar Murray's original review of Be Here Now for MOJO on the Chasing the Sun archive... this was the most glowing of all the reviews I think. Remember reading this before I'd heard the album and it sent my expectations through the roof! In retrospect, I think it's hard to imagine many records living up to a write-up like this...
It's an absolute joke. I can only think it was written under the influence of a lot of drugs.
I remember reading all those reviews as a teenager at the time and buying into the hype that it would be the greatest album ever made.
I was so let down once I got my hands on it but I can look back at it now as a flawed & overblown album but it has some belting tunes and the BHN tour was pretty special.
Really pumped up about the re-release of it later this year and the great unheard bonus stuff I'm sure we will get.
It's an absolute joke. I can only think it was written under the influence of a lot of drugs.
I remember reading all those reviews as a teenager at the time and buying into the hype that it would be the greatest album ever made.
I was so let down once I got my hands on it but I can look back at it now as a flawed & overblown album but it has some belting tunes and the BHN tour was pretty special.
Really pumped up about the re-release of it later this year and the great unheard bonus stuff I'm sure we will get.
I remember going on holiday to America shortly before it came out and sitting next to an American guy whose mate worked for Sony and had heard it. When this guy told me the word was the album wasn't that great I thought he was an idiot. How could it be anything but amazing? A few weeks later I was sitting in my bedroom on release day realising he was bang on. Still, it's got more decent tunes on it than most albums at the time, even if it was a massive disappointment by Oasis standards. I still think that if they'd come out with something like The Charlatans' Tellin' Stories - one of my favourite albums of 1997 along with Urban Hymns - it would have been massive.
