I remember cutting this review out of The Age newspaper when it was printed at the release of DBTT. Very good review that even praises 'The Meaning of Soul' and 'A Bell Will Ring' as being top tunes. The Age is pretty much the equivalent of The Guardian from the UK, making this review all the more surprising. Thought it was worth typing out


Don't Believe The Truth - FEATURE ALBUM
Author: ANDREW MURFETT
Date: 03/06/2005

CD REVIEW: Don't Believe The Truth Oasis (Sony BMG) ****

WHILE still heroes in Britain, outside of their fervent fan base Oasis are mostly perceived as belligerent twats with a misplaced sense of ego. It's faint praise then to pronounce Don't Believe The Truth as their best work since . . . Morning Glory.

What made Oasis so vital at their mid-'90s zenith was how easily it all seemed to come. Who else could afford to relegate The Masterplan or Talk Tonight to b-side status? There was Liam's raspy Benson and Hedges-laced vocals, Noel's sublime writing and the, err, other blokes (tellingly, the likes of Guigsy and Bonehead are long gone). Hence the fractious relationship between the Gallagher brothers, so volatile even at the peak of the band's powers, went from amusing caricature to a serious threat to their future. Oasis rapidly became a complacent, tired, unmanageable aberration. Languishing under the weight of expectation and, it should be pointed out, a mountain of cocaine, two dud albums followed.

The turning point proved not to be 2002's middling Heathen Chemistry but the stellar world tour that supported it - including two prodigious Melbourne shows at the Forum. The most gratifying aspect of this album is the trimming of the fat: 11 songs in 43 minutes. There's more autonomy with songwriting duties too, although Noel's contributions are still their biggest asset.

Album highlight Part of The Queue is subtly divergent to much of their previous output: a lucid mid-tempo track epitomising a lack of baggage. Mucky Fingers is a bleary-eyed, inward-looking rocker while The Importance of Being Idle is the closest connection to . . . Morning Glory. Liam's offerings are almost worthwhile here, particularly the ultra-sharp The Meaning Of Soul, which is over in barely 90 seconds. Archer and Bell's contributions are also valuable; note Archer's superb A Bell Will Ring.

Supreme album-closing ballad Let There Be Love has Liam and Noel sharing vocal duties and is so good (and disarmingly genuine) it's almost bewildering. Don't Believe The Truth is not a great record, merely just very good. Which is more then we dared expect.

ANDREW MURFETT