Don't Believe the Truth
Epic, 2005
rating 3.5/5
reviewer: marti332


If you're reading this, then by now you have likely read several reviews of this record. Sorry. We're slow sometimes here at TMT. Anyway, you've probably read a "This is a return to form" review. You've probably caught someone discussing the increasing "democratization" of the band, as Liam and even the non-Gallaghers get in on the songwriting. You've probably also read those "other" reviews; you know, the ones that bash the lyrics and crack wise as to the lack of originality. But you can think for yourself, and you know that a critic blasting Oasis for being unoriginal is itself terribly unoriginal.

So you and me, let's skip the formalities: if you are an Oasis fan, I think you should buy this record. But do so under the following proviso: next to Definitely Maybe or What's the Story (Morning Glory), it is not great.

Oasis is not really about the lyrics. So for me to say that lines like "You turn me on/ You're love is like a bomb" suck, while true, misses the point. So too does pointing out their overt "sampling" (as Pete Townshend once put it) of other bands' material. Oasis has always been understood best through their swagger, their delivery (or, on Standing on the Shoulders of Giants and Heathen Chemistry, lack thereof). And for a few glorious moments, our beloved Mancs have that swagger back.

"Lyla," cribbing from "Street Fighting Man," is a gleeful romp of a song. "Turn On the Sun" and "Mucky Fingers" come as close to capturing the bravado of "Supersonic" and "Up in the Sky" as the boys have been in ten years. "Let There Be Love" almost feels sincere enough to overcome itself, much the same way that "Slide Away" once did.

To be sure, the album features some sub-par (even bad) material. "Meaning of Soul" and "Keep the Dream Alive" are absolutely misfires, and the middle of the album tends to drag as the listener prays for more distorted guitars and drunken chest-puffing. This is not by any stretch a populist classic the way the first two Oasis records were. Still, having waited since the disappointing Be Here Now for Oasis to do anything other that suck, Don't Believe the Truth is a start.

1. Turn Up The Sun
2. Mucky Fingers
3. Lyla
4. Love Like A Bomb
5. Importance Of Being Idle, The
6. Meaning Of Soul, The
7. Guess God Thinks I'm Abel
8. Part Of The Queue
9. Keep The Dream Alive
10. Bell Will Ring, A
11. Let There Be Love