Don't Believe the Truth

Oasis albums have always prompted flashbacks. Was that a Beatles melody? Is that chorus on loan from T. Rex? Wait, wasn't that a Crowded House song once? But the mouthy British group's latest really sounds like a pop artifact. Their new LP Don't Believe The Truth is of course not better than the first two Oasis albums but is definitely better than the last three. In other words it is the record, which should have followed (What's The Story) Morning Glory? Two years and much production has gone into Don't Believe The Truth, which breathes harmonica solos, keyboards and extended percussion (Zak Starkey continues to drum while percussionist extraordinaire Lenny Castro guests) allowing Oasis to flex across folk, pop and psychedelia, which partly confirms the band's heavy name checking of The Kinks and Highway 61.

More so than ever, they wear their music influences on their sleeves. Mucky Fingers borrows the chug-a-chug of The Velvet Underground's I'm Waiting For The Man, but lyrically and vocally, Noel has never sounded more reinvigorated in a decade. The cynics suggest the once great songwriter is struggling. Momentarily it can appear that Noel is at odds. He only contributes five this time, but the gems remain all his. Part Of The Queue lends more than a few nods to The Stranglers' Golden Brown, but Noel's redemptive words and performance are again on fine form. His closer, Let There Be Love, crafts a brilliant Gallagher duet, a spiritual hybrid of Live Forever and Let It Be, utterly filled with the kind soul they exported so abundantly in the 94/95 season. The other six are no fillers either. Gem Archer has a catchy potential single in A Bell Will Ring. Turn Up The Sun slips into life slowly, deceptively, growling into a bold swagger for Andy Bell's song. Another Andy Bell’s track Keep The Dream Alive rotates loose urgency and desert psychedelia, which waters into one of the most Oasis-sounding of the lot. Liam's three continue his surprising progression. Love Like A Bomb betrays more of the Songbird karma no one thought he could be capable of showing. Guess God Think I'm Abel, a tender tribute to Noel along the same lines as Acquiesce, bridges the record wonderfully. The thrashy Meaning Of Soul, barely two minutes long, seems to have been written shortly after Liam got his teeth smashed in Germany, but it gets better each time you hear it. Which is very much reflective of the album. You won't be blown away in the unique way Oasis' first albums did. Yet with every listen Don't Believe The Truth will pull you in.

It's worth remembering that it took The Beatles and Rolling Stones six albums to mature before they eventually came up with their big hitters (Revolver, Sgt Pepper, Beggars Banquet and Sticky Fingers were yet to follow). A mature Oasis at the same stage claim two classic records, are off the drugs and have regained a stride which maybe will lead to something great once again. While that time is not now, Oasis are back, still relevant and, in Liam's words, "still waiting for someone to take the torch."