Oasis - Don't Believe the Truth
12 May 2005, 11:28 PM

Oasis have always been a band that have divided opinion. Some people idolise the brothers Gallagher in the way that people idolised Lennon and McCartney and others see them as, essentially, a rip off of the Beatles. But even the "haters" have drunkenly sung along to "Don't Look Back in Anger" at some point in their lives. That's how good Oasis were in the mid-90s, everyone knew them, even if you didn't like them you knew them, you knew their albums, their songs, their lyrics - in 1995 you couldn't escape Oasis. In 1997 a terrible thing happened, Oasis released a mediocre album. "Be Here Now" was supposed to be a symbol of "Cool Britiannia", a sign that Great Britain was becoming "great" again, instead Oasis released the musically equivalent of a coked up night in with the Gallaghers - Robbie Williams duly took over the charts and Brit Pop was dead for good.

Something strange happened last year, bands started to re-emerge and music started sounding something like it did before the invasion of rap. The next generation of bands were sounding promising, The Libertines, Razorlight, The Killers and The Zutons represented a new dawn in music. At Glastonbury an Oasis that barely resembled the Oasis of 1995 gave a quite frankly dire performance and the critics went in for the kill. Everywhere you looked people were trying to convince you that Oasis were dead, that they weren't relevant anymore and that Pete Doherty rather than Noel Gallagher was the face of British indie music.

On May 30th Oasis release "Don't Believe the Truth", their sixth studio album - a number that, incidentally, Pete Doherty's the Libertines could only dream of releasing. If "Be Here Now" was the musical equivalent of a coked up night in with the Gallaghers then "Don't Believe the Truth" is the musical equivalent of one of the Gallaghers emphatically sticking their middle finger at the music press. Every time an Oasis album is due for release Noel claims that it is the best thing they've written since Definitely Maybe - well this time he may be right. I will say that "Don't Believe the Truth" is the best album anyone has written since at least 1997's "Urban Hymns".

The album opens with the Andy Bell penned track "Turn Up the Sun", which at the same time manages to sound completely like the Oasis of old, and like something completely fresh from the band. The psychedelic sounding intro and outro sandwich a very catchy and in your face section of the song. When I first heard Liam sing "I carry a madness everywhere I go" I was in no doubt that I was in for a treat with this album. Track 2, "Mucky Fingers", is as every review has said Bob Dylan doing the Velvet Underground - that's some compliment. This is an entirely new Oasis sound, it is probably Noel's best on vocal performance since "Don't Look Back in Anger" and the Gem Archer harmonica solo is out of this world. Out of all the tracks on the album I think this one is either one you "get" or you don't, and I thought it was incredible.

If you haven't yet heard "Lyla" then where have you been for the last month? It's a stomping "Roll With It" style pop tune, that gets stuck in your head and refuses to leave, it's a great Oasis single. "Love Like a Bomb" is the highlight of the album for me, everything about it says summer, and Liam is on top form again. The lyrics are simple - at times they are even replaced with "Hey Jude" style "na's" rather than words - and the songs never going to be earth shattering but there's something so positive about the whole thing. That's what Oasis used to be, at the very least their songs were positive. "Love Like a Bomb" is one of those songs that doesn't last long enough and leaves you yearning for more.

"The Importance of Being Idle" on the other hand probably lasts a minute too long, however, that's not to say it's a bad song. Noel sings about the bliss (or nightmare) of having nothing to do in your life, and perhaps if it wasn't for the dentist drill sound about 79 seconds into the song then maybe I'd be keener on it. Noel himself said it was "The Kinks doing The La's", their is something so quintessentially British about this - "I've lost my faith in the Summer time cause it don't stop raining" sings a contemplating older brother. "The Meaning of the Soul" sounds like Liam spitting in your face, it's an angry snarl in a sort of 50s sytle-y. It's probably the worst song on the album but seeing as it clocks in at less than 2 minutes then it's hardly a disaster.

"Guess God Thinks I'm Abel" is the last Liam written song on the album and it's another instant classic about nothing in particular. Ok the lyrics may be slightly "Little James" like but it's catchy as anything and the last 30 seconds are, well, bizarre in a good way. "Part of the Queue" is Noel moaning again, this time about life in London, to the tune of "Golden Brown" by "The Stranglers". And whilst it's a great song, the reason "Definitely Maybe" and "Morning Glory" were successful was because they were positive, like no other music released at the time. It's ironic that with success, Noel has got more and more negative. I'm sure a move back up North is on the cards for Noel based on the lyrics of this one.

"Keep the Dream Alive" is an epic. It has a chorus capable of filling the biggest stadiums in the world and again has a very summery feel about it. "I'm no stranger to this place/where real life and dreams collide/and even though I fall from grace/I will keep the dream alive" sings a reflecting Liam. Andy Bell, who wrote the song, appears to be a very worthy addition to the line up. The penultimate track is "A Bell Will Ring" the only song on the album written by Gem Archer and, allegedly, Ringo's favourite. It's incredibly positive and very Beatlesesque.

However, it isn't until you reach the last track of the album "Let There Be Love" where you realise the extent of this album. "Smallville" have supposedly already requested the song to feature in one of their episodes, I'm sure you'll hear plenty of this in the future. In fact, when England rather predictably go out of the World Cup in German next year, I can almost guarantee that you'll see David Beckham's tears accompanied by this song. "Let There Be Love" is massive and just grows and grows on you, it is the "Champagne Supernova" of "Don't Believe the Truth", it could, quite frankly, be Oasis' "Hey Jude".

I've already said it once but I'll say it again. "Don't Believe the Truth" is a masterpiece, it is the best album anyone has written since Richard Ashcroft wrote "Urban Hymns", it is a lesson to Pete Doherty, Carl Barat, Johnny Borrell and Brandon Flowers on how to be a great band. In 1994 Oasis released "Definitely Maybe" the best album of the 90s. In 2005 they will release "Don't Believe the Truth", which at the moment is head and shoulders above any other album released this decade. The music industry is a highly cynical world, and having not released a world class album in almost 10 years Oasis were being written off. Theirs a phrase in sport that says "Form is temporary, class is permanent" and with Oasis it certainly seems to be the case. Oasis have returned to the music industry's top table, and assuming they wish to stay there, I can't see anyone replacing them in the near future.

How long until we are referring to Oasis as Sir Noel and Sir Liam?

10/10

Written by gigger