The tactics alienated the press and many industry personnel connected with the band and fuelled large-scale speculation and publicity within the British music scene.

By the summer of 1996, Oasis were widely considered, according to guitarist Noel Gallagher, "the biggest band in the world ... bigger than, dare I say it, fucking God.

[7] He had suffered from writer's block during the previous winter, and said he wrote only a single guitar riff in the six months following the release of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?.

On 23 August 1996, vocalist Liam Gallagher refused to sing for an MTV Unplugged performance at London's Royal Festival Hall, pleading a sore throat.

Four days later, Liam declined to participate in the first leg of an American tour, complaining that he needed to buy a house with his then-girlfriend Patsy Kensit.

He rejoined the band a few days after for a key concert at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York, but intentionally sang off-key and spat beer and saliva during the performance.

Amongst much internal bickering, the tour continued to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Noel finally lost his patience with Liam and announced he was leaving the band.

Reviewing for Nude as the News, Jonathan Cohen noted that the album is "virtually interchangeable with 1994's Definitely Maybe or its blockbuster sequel, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?

contains a slowed down loop from N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton",[22] while "Magic Pie" features psychedelically arranged vocal harmonies and a Mellotron.

"[23] The album's production is dominated by top-end high frequency tones, and according to Uncut's Paul Lester, its use of treble is reminiscent of both late 1980s Creation Records bands such as My Bloody Valentine, and the Stooges' famously under-produced Raw Power (1973).

[22] The vocal melodies continue Noel's preference for "massed-rank sing-alongs", although Paul Du Noyer concedes that not all are of the "pub-trashing idiot kind" of previous releases.

[21] Reviewers have also found Beatles references in the music, on tracks such as "All Around the World", which has been compared to the sing-along qualities of "Hey Jude" and "All You Need Is Love".

[22] Du Noyer praised Liam's vocal contributions and described his "Northern punk whine" as "the most distinctive individual style of our time.

"[22] The cover image was shot in April 1997 at Stocks House in Hertfordshire, the former home of Victor Lownes, head of the Playboy Clubs in the UK until 1981.

Spencer remarked that the shoot "degenerated into chaos", adding that "by 8 pm, everyone was in the bar, there were schoolkids all over the set, and the lighting crew couldn't start the generator.

In the case of Creation Records Ltd v. News Group Newspapers Ltd, the court decided that the collection of objects brought together for the album cover was insufficient in creating an artwork that could be protected by copyright.

Ignition's strategy from that point on centred on an effort to suppress all publicity, and withheld access to both music and information from anybody not directly involved with the album's release.

To this end they planned a modest marketing budget, to be spent on subdued promotional activities such as street posters and music press adverts, while avoiding mainstream instruments such as billboard and TV advertising.

"[34] BBC Radio 1 received a CD containing three songs ten days before the album's release, on condition that disc jockey Steve Lamacq talked over the tracks to prevent illegal copies being made by listeners.

[30] Worrying that TV news cameras would interview queuing fans at a traditional midnight opening session, Ignition forced retailers to sign contracts pledging not to sell the record earlier than 8:00 am.

[21] Dele Fadele of Vox describes it as "a veritable rock'n'roll monsoon of an album; a giant jigsaw puzzle, an elemental force, a monster that cannot and will not be contained.

Reviewing for the Chicago Sun-Times on release, Jae-Ha Kim considered the album as good as its two predecessors, writing: "The 12 tracks on Be Here Now aren't as immediately accessible as Oasis' earlier hits "Wonderwall" or "Live Forever".

In Entertainment Weekly, David Browne stated: "Much of the album is a messy, mucky keg o' sound that constantly threatens to spill over and drown Noel's innately melodic songs."

Club felt that although there were good tracks present, naming "My Big Mouth", "Don't Go Away" and "Stand by Me", the majority suffered from "cumbersome overlength", feeling that the band's attempt to make a "grand, career-defining statement" backfired.

[69] In a more positive review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic calls Be Here Now a "triumphant" record that "steamrolls over any criticism", praising Liam's vocal performances as his finest up to that point, as well as the songs as "intensely enjoyable" and "impossibly catchy".

[68] Andrzej Lukowski of Drowned in Sound felt that when compared to the band's earlier work, Be Here Now lacked "aspirational rock 'n' roll swagger" besides a few tracks; he also agreed that a complete remix of the album would have been beneficial, considering "D'You Know What I Mean?"

[72] In 2020, Luke Holland of The Guardian described Be Here Now as a "flawed masterpiece"; writing that "as a snapshot of 90s excess – a bygone age of pig-headed rock-star bravado – it’s a preposterous hoot.

There's no bass to it at all; I don't know what happened to that ... And all the songs are really long and all the lyrics are shit and for every millisecond Liam is not saying a word, there's a fuckin' guitar riff in there in a Wayne's World stylie.

In the 2003 John Dower-directed documentary Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop, music critic Jon Savage pinpointed Be Here Now as the moment where the Britpop movement ended.

[3] Q expressed similar sentiments, writing, "So colossally did Be Here Now fall short of expectations that it killed Britpop and ushered in an era of more ambitious, less overblown music.