Songs like All Around The World and Stand By Me do not help shorten the album very much. The former attempts to be the next Hey Jude with its endless three chord cycle paired up with "na-na-na" chanting and the latter just has a few verses too many. When I saw Oasis in concert, Stand By Me was the only song in the set plucked from Be Here Now. That's too bad, because it does not represent the album very well.

Be Here Now is at its best when it just rocks out with no nonsense. If you are from the Definitely Maybe camp, then you'll like My Big Mouth, It's Betting Better Man, I Hope I Think I Know, Girl In The Dirty Shirt, and the title track. Armed with guitars cranked to infinity, Oasis shoots and scores on these songs.

But with the success of Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger in the states, Noel Gallagher was most likely under the impression that he could make lightning strike twice in the same place. And here is where Be Here Now gets a little tripped-up. Don't Go Away is, without a doubt, Oasis' worst ballad and overall worst single. The lyrics are tripe and the music is derivative of Slide Away, minus all the guts.

Fade In/Out could have been a nasty, gritty little number, but it just drags on and on without ever really building to anything. It seems to serve only as an excuse to have Johnny Depp step in and play some guitar. The Noel-sung Magic Pie reaches for the sweeping epic approach, but falls short and lands in the area of repetition.

The core of Be Here Now is pretty much in its repetition. Never have I heard so many choruses cycled through as on this album, and the momentum is shifty: you don't know if the album is on an upswing or a downswing. Their best album it is not. But it's not terrible either.

fantastic--
What's with this "overproduced" gibberish? Backstreet Boys, N Sync, now THAT is overproduced. However, it's not just those groups, but essentially ever other group these days suffers from overproduction, even ones that were brilliant at the start of the decade. Oasis' records are amazingly well-produced. Sure they really piled on the sounds on this album, but they got it right. The album soars with great hooks in essentially every nook & cranny. Liam does a great, great job singing (he really takes the songs to another level), & Noel's vocal works just right on "Magic Pie". Clearly Noel knows what he's doing. Highlights are all over the place on this 71 + minute disc with "D'You Know What I Mean", "Magic Pie", "Fade-In Out", "All Around The World", etc. The one song I generally skip is the so-so "The Girl In the Dirty Shirt", but otherwise, you really can't ask for more than this.
There's been a stalinist re-write of history on this CD.

'The Greatest Thing Ever' on it's release soon evolved into 'A Misguided Overblown Epic'. Not surprinsingly, it fits pretty neatly between the two. The dross on here is simply pedestrian; nothing on here will make you want to throw the disk away. The songs are too long ('Magic Pie' and 'Do you know what i mean?' outstay their welcomes after the 8th guitar refrain!!!) and the constantly huge guitars do seem to hide some pretty weak songs.

'Stand By Me' is wonderous and 'All around the world' and 'Girl in the dirty shirt' are defiantly celebratory. Though they come off as boorish morans in the tabloid press, the talent within their ranks shines through. And Noel has the best handle on fame that I've ever seen.

NOT overproduced
Critics suck. This album is better than people give say it is. It may not be their best work, but to anyone with any clue on what good music is should know this cd is a great one. I am a huge oasis fan and own every cd they have. I like every song they have ever written and the B-sides like Lets all belive are great. This album has what most bands dont have anymore, a guitar playing well and loud. The song I hope, I think, I know is one of the greatest songs they have written so i dont know why i hear people badmouthing this album. If i were start over and buy thier albums, this would be number 2 right after Their first one becuase that is my facorite one.

Not Bad
Incredible bad musicians, terrible song writers, the worst vocalist ever, what else can I say?
They totally destroyed what the Beatles created for all of us. All of their songs are copied from The Beatles' Rubber Soul, Revolver and Abbey Road. Please do not buy this cd! I recommend you to buy good alternative rock if you want so: R.E.M and The Cranberries