Pop/rock:

Oasis, Don't Believe the Truth (* * * ) To call this the Gallagher brothers' best album in eight years is faint praise indeed, given that the forerunners of Britpop have been sputtering toward obsolescence and steadily sinking in a self-made quicksand of hubris, laziness and clichés as Radiohead and countless others pumped new life and luster into the genre. Oasis' sixth studio album and first since 2002's Heathen Chemistry can't be called a reinvention — this isn't modern rock but rather mod rockers circa 1966 with tambourines, psychedelic splashes, chiming guitars and lots of cheeky attitude. Yet there's much to cheer in the restoration of the sweeping, textured epic pop that captivated listeners in the mid-'90s. Singer Liam and guitarist Noel, hopelessly retro and still shamelessly copping from their idols, raid Velvet Underground's I'm Waiting for the Man for Mucky Fingers and rip wholesale from the Rolling Stones' Street Fighting Man for acoustic rocker Lyla. Results this shiny, brash and focused can't be faulted, however. And while the pace flags with mercifully brief The Meaning of Soul and a few other clunkers, Truth prevails in such winners as the sharp and aggressive A Bell Will Ring, sizzling Turn Up the Sun, restrained ballad Let There Be Love and soulful Keep the Dream Alive. —Edna Gundersen

Coldplay also gets a 3/4