Be Here Now by Oasis

Be Here Now, Oasis's third album, hit the shops on Creation Records on 21 August 1997 with the whole of Britain waiting at the door. After Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory? had taken the band around the world, their management company, Ignition, kept the new record under lock and key: radio got precious little of it in advance and journalists were made to sign gag orders. The press took offence, and the secrecy only stoked the hysteria.

It was cut in several London studios, Abbey Road among them, and at Ridge Farm in Surrey, with Owen Morris co-producing, and everything about it is supersized. The songs stretch out, the guitars are stacked overdub upon overdub, and Noel Gallagher, still writing the songs, has said he wanted the thing to sound enormous. Liam Gallagher's sneer rides on top; Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan make their last studio stand with the band, and Alan White drums on every track of an Oasis album for the first time. The anthems are still there, and "D'You Know What I Mean?" and "All Around the World" both went to number one in the UK. Morris later described sessions soured by rows and drugs.

At first it flew: the quickest-selling album British chart history had ever seen, number one in 15 countries, the UK's biggest seller of 1997 and eight million copies worldwide by 2022. Hindsight has been harsher, with later reviewers calling it bloated and overcooked. Noel has torn into it, Liam calls it his favourite Oasis record, and some writers mark its release as the moment Britpop ran out of road.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.