Portal:Alternative music/Selected albums/7
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Be Here Now is the third studio album by the English rock band Oasis. Released in August 1997, the album was highly anticipated by both music critics and fans as a result of the band's previous worldwide successes with their 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe, and its 1995 follow up (What's the Story) Morning Glory?. The album's pre-release build up led to considerable hype within both the music and mainstream press. At that point, Oasis were at the height of their fame, and Be Here Now became the UK's fastest selling album to date, selling over 420,000 units on the first day of release alone, and over one million within two weeks. As of 2007, the album has sold eight million copies worldwide.
Artistically Be Here Now failed to live up to the expectations that preceded its release. Although initial reviews were positive, retrospectively the album is viewed by much of the music press and by most members of the band as over-indulgent and bloated. In 2007, Q magazine described Be Here Now as "a disastrous, overblown folly—the moment when Oasis, their judgement clouded by drugs and blanket adulation, ran aground on their own sky-high self-belief." The album's producer Owen Morris said of the recording sessions: "The only reason anyone was there was the money. Noel had decided Liam was a shit singer. Liam had decided he hated Noel's songs [...] Massive amounts of drugs. Big fights. Bad vibes. Shit recordings."
