Noel Gallagher reflects on ‘Be Here Now’ criticism: “I started to overthink it”

"Nobody realised that that was our moment. I thought our moment was the one after"

Noel Gallagher has opened up on why Oasis‘ ‘Be Here Now’ has attracted retrospective criticism, admitting that he may have overthought the lyrical process behind the record.

The band’s third album received praise upon release in August 1997, but modern reviews have been less kind — with some critics describing it as the moment that “killed Britpop”.

Speaking in a new documentary to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’, Noel admitted that the success of that album may have adversely affected the third record.

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“Most people, our record company included, were expecting ‘Definitely, Maybe’ part two,” he said in Return to Rockfield.

“And they weren’t expecting ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ and ‘Cast No Shadow’ and that kind of thing. So, yeah, I was expecting it to be not well-received.”

He added: “Nobody realised that that was our moment. I thought our moment was the one after, that’s what I thought. So, I started to overthink it on ‘Be Here Now’.”

Noel Gallagher (Picture: Getty)

Reflecting on the harsh contemporary evaluations of the record, he added: “I mean it goes to prove that really, journalists, they know fuck all. They had to second guess everything after ‘Morning Glory’, cos they’d got it so wrong.

“That’s why when ‘Be Here Now came’ out, which isn’t a great album, it got 10/10 everywhere, it didn’t get one bad review, because they didn’t want to be made to look like dicks again, and they were, because it’s not half the record ‘Morning Glory’ is.

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“After that, they properly hated us after that, cos they didn’t understand us.”

In contrast, Liam Gallagher said in 2017 that ‘Be Here Now’ remains among his favourite records from the group, rating it 10/10 in an NME interview.

Last week, Noel also looked back on ‘Champagne Supernova’ by admitting he “doesn’t have a clue” what the song’s lyrics actually mean.

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