Oasis – Don't Believe The Truth Review

01. Turn Up The Sun
02. Mucky Fingers
03. Lyla
04. Love Like A Bomb
05. The Importance Of Being Idle
06. The Meaning Of Soul
07. Guess God Thinks I’m Abel
08. Part Of The Queue
09. Keep The Dream Alive
10. A Bell Will Ring
11. Let There Be Love

Oasis Mk 1 lived by a simple formula. It was Noel’s songs + Liam’s voice + bland band members = a rock and roll party for the whole world. They believed they were invincible and they made all the guests feel it too. Yet even the best party has to end sometime and this one was no exception. There were too many drugs, not enough drugs, the wrong type of drugs, marriages, divorces, parenthood, the eternal battle with the media, arrests, family problems, band problems and, more worryingly, even musical problems. The creative well had been filled in with cocaine and it would take some time to figure out exactly where else they should be digging. Struggling through the harshest hangover of the biggest rock and roll party since Mick met Keith was going to take some time, with the inevitable tension leading to not only the usual fighting between the Gallagher brothers but fighting with the rest of the band too. Out went guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs and bassist Paul ‘Guigsy’ McGuigan, to be replaced by Gem Archer and Andy Bell respectively, both of whom easily surpass the ‘guitarist’ and ‘bassist’ labels with their multi-instrumental talents. Out went drummer Alan White and, well, there was no permanent replacement. Drummers? Who needs ’em? Instead they went for the most audacious transfer bid in rock history and pinched Ringo Starr’s son from The Who to play with them live. Oh, yes… It’s coming home…

The ‘difficult’ Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, an uncharacteristically dark and uncertain album for the band, paved the way for the resurgent and polished Heathen Chemistry

Noel took time out to chill out and keep on chilling out and become an expert on chilling out and realise there’s nothing wrong with chilling out and find out how to write songs whilst doing it… Hell, he’s even writing songs about it now…

Liam wanted to be John Lennon when he grew up and, through the power of song-writing, he finally did grow up… Well, only a bit but that’s why we love him…

Gem and Andy never even knew how to be intimidated by the Oasis myth; they just became best mates with the Gallaghers and made it their mission in life to write better songs than they could conjure up…

Oh, yes… Its home again… Say hello to Oasis Mk 2…

You see, it’s important to realise just what this band has come to stand for. Ever since the Sex Pistols happened, the lineage of the Great British Rock Band has been an easy one to trace. The Clash was there when it all went down and added the passion to it, The Jam added the fashion, The Smiths added the brains, and The Stone Roses added the attitude. Oasis came along and took a peek into the future, decided “yep, we’ll be having that”, and then looked into the past to conquer the present. Fuelled by the desire that comes only from a lifetime of your family being pissed on by the rain clouds imprisoning a council estate, they took aim instead at the stars they idolised in the skies beyond said clouds. They took hold and through sheer force of will have never let go. The British nation took them to their hearts and, over ten years of noise and confusion later, there they remain. Oh sure, there have been some pretenders to the throne along the way, but they have never been able to capture the public spirit the way the aforementioned bands did. They were unable to explode because they imploded (The Verve), turned down the invitation (Radiohead) or simply missed the point (Coldplay). With the fate of British rock’s future now seemingly in the hands of Pete Doherty’s dealer, it becomes clearer just how much is riding on Oasis to keep us sated. We need this, but thankfully they want this. Bringing it on down, it’s Oasis Mk 2. Sure, it’s only rock and roll; but we love it.

We hit the ground running with the stomping opener “Turn Up The Sun” and Liam snarling into your ear that “I carry a madness everywhere I go” as though he’s unsure whether or not this is your fault or his. This is destined to open shows on the upcoming tour with the sun shining brightly in the sky as nature gives the band a wry nod of approval. Andy Bell has carved out his first true classic here. Scratch just beneath the surface and the message in the deceptively simple lyrics is clear to see. It’s a plea to the nucleus of the band, Liam and Noel, to cut out the brotherly hate and focus on the love, that they alone have what it takes to mean so much to so many and to spread that joy all over the damn planet like no others can hope to imitate. After all, they haven’t quit and neither have we, so can’t we just get on with it?

From there we get our first Noel-sung song of the record, “Mucky Fingers”, perhaps best described as Bob Dylan taking a trip through the Velvet Underground on a runaway bullet train, screaming “It’s all mine! It’s all mine!” en route to a one-note Viking funeral somewhere underneath your cerebellum. No time to check for survivors though, because no sooner has the explosion struck than the opening chords of the #1 single “Lyla” have hit. It’s already a live favourite and they’ve only played it half-a-dozen times. In typical Oasis fashion, it means absolutely nothing but sounds like it means the world. Driven by a relentless “Street Fighting Man” beat, the incessant “Heyyyyyyy, Lyla” hook takes root somewhere in your soul and leaves you humming along for days afterwards.

The trio of rockers that open the album now pave the way for an exploration of their motivation at this stage in their career. We start with Liam, whose voice has come in for some criticism since he had the misfortune to deliver his worst vocal performance ever during a headline set at last year’s Glastonbury festival. Thankfully, he more than redeems himself with “Love Like A Bomb”. As though that title doesn’t give it away, it’s the first song of his on the album. Quite how he managed to turn a waltz into a rock song and inject it with such genuine tenderness is a mystery, yet there it is. If any one of a million identikit Pop Idol wannabes could fill their singing with the passion Liam gives to the line “Girl I’m feeling that we’ve been in love all the time” then the world would be a better place.

Not to be outdone (on pain of death, presumably), Noel takes charge once again for “The Importance Of Being Idle” and delivers his best vocal performance to date. For a man that once threatened to quit singing altogether because he lacked enough confidence in his abilities, that’s saying something. This unapologetic homage to being a lazy, unmotivated and quite-happy-to-stay-like-that-thanks little so-and-so certainly drags it out of him. Lyrically speaking, it’s also his best piece of storytelling since the oft-overlooked B-side “Underneath The Sky” as he proceeds to justify his contentment in not doing a lot to the landlord, the girlfriend, the best mate, the doctor and the world at large. Okay, so it might not be the complex Dylan concoction that it clearly aims to be, but lines such as “Give me a minute; a man’s got a limit… I can’t get a life if my heart’s not in it” will find empathy in the hearts of every man across the world that has ever been put upon.

Like heavyweight prize fighters trading blows, however, Liam comes bouncing back from the ropes and floors the listener with “The Meaning Of Soul”, generously and aptly described by Noel as being ‘Elvis on Red Bull.’ Clocking in at a meagre 104 seconds, it spits and snarls and struts and sexes its way along to the bar with the eyes of the world upon it, every woman wanting it and every man wanting to be it and it doesn’t even give a f*ck. Why should it? After all, it just f*cking knows, man. If the previous song was the essence of Noel then this is the essence of Liam. Or is it?

Just as most journalists underestimate the man and focus on the caricature of the loutish rock star with a beer in one hand and a middle-finger raised on the other, there is more to Liam than excess and rage. His ode to Noel on “Guess God Thinks I’m Abel” practically defines their relationship, harkening back to Andy Bell’s sentiments on “Turn Up The Sun.” With that unmistakable ‘you’re not wrong, I’m just right’ voice the song drifts off with “No one can take us, no one can break us… if it’s right?” Surprisingly tender and more musically complex than anything he has penned before, the frantically misunderstood singer has unwittingly conjured the trick of making one meaning applicable to all interpretations. Still, this is Liam, so the song releases the embrace and subsequently smashes you in the face with misguided passion in wholly unnecessary fashion with a brief but bracing epilogue ironically encouraging more brotherhood – unmistakably 100% Gallagher.

From there, we go back to Noel and he is… still doing nothing. Worse – or better – yet, he is now fed up with others for not realising just how absurd the struggle of city life has become and just what they are missing out on. Let Bono save the world, we’ve got some telly to watch. Driven by a stunning bit of percussion by Cuban legend Lenny Castro, “Part Of The Queue” is the sound of the theme of the entire Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants album being picked up by the scruff of the neck, smacked around for being such a whiny little bitch, and thrown out there into the real world to see what’s actually happening, i.e. nothing of note. So what’s a poor boy to do? Sing in a rock and roll band? But we tried that once and it only led to trouble, remember?

Ah, ye of little faith. Take a look at the forest, not the trees. Here’s Andy Bell again to show you how, with his anthem “Keep The Dream Alive”. The song is vague enough to be sung about any everyday troubles that might plague the listener, just like the best Oasis tunes, but the real message is clear to hear – you know what you want, so just f*cking have it. As Liam sings, “Every night I hear you scream, but you don’t say what you mean…” What’s the price for a little honesty around these here parts, anyway? Do you really know what you want or is it just what someone told you that you need? Trying to answer that question damn near killed the band off back in 2000, but they phoned a friend and along came Gem Archer with the answer. As much of a conduit for Liam’s psychedelic creative streak as he is an actual band member, he is also quite clearly the one that still clings tightly to the Revolver influences that the band ran through so excessively on the Be Here Now album. Still, it worked then and it works now. With this acceptance of your true nature comes clarity in the form of “A Bell Will Ring”. To some it will be dismissed as ‘Oasis by numbers’ or ‘pub rock’ or other such supposed insults. To those in the party, on their seventh drink and quite fancying the look of that guy/girl over there, such nonsense doesn’t actually matter. Who decided to pass judgement, anyway? “The world’s as wide as your life is thin”, just like the song says. Let’s remember what Lyla was gonna do and just f*cking roll with it already.

Refreshed and repaired, the album must sadly depart to pub jukeboxes and fond memories. It does so with the landmark “Let There Be Love” – a song so good that it is impossible to review without giving into hyperbole if you’re feeling it. Simply speaking, it speaks for everyone. By the time the drums kick in halfway through this Liam & Noel duet you realise that the hairs on the back of your neck are still standing up from the tender opening line “Who kicked a whole in the sky so that heaven could cry over me?” This is the every-song for the every-man, this is what Oasis do best and this is what why we still need them. This summer, all over the world, while they play this song on their tour the world will be changed. Across the audience, hearts will be broken and broken hearts will find the strength to be healed. Someone at one gig will be inspired to propose to their loved one because of this song’s sentiments, someone at another will decide to bury that hatchet at long last, someone at another will realise they’ve got what it takes to chase that dream, while someone at another will be inspired to start up a rock band of his own and hopefully blast into our ears in the future. This is the reason. This is inspiration. This is the sound reminding you it ain’t a sin to dream.

With that, our time is spent. The (almost-not-quite) instrumental hidden track “I Can See It Now” picks up the collective threads and ties them all together to the sound of the sunrise kissing the sunset. Towards the end, Noel appears and yells the refrain “I can see it now, can you see it now?” but thanks to the passion and the lineage that infuses each note of this album, we’re blinded by it. Oasis Mk 2 has been thrown out the gutter. This is the band, not the myth. This is Oasis and rock and roll is safe for one more party.

Standout Tracks:
The Importance Of Being Idle, Love Like A Bomb, Let There Be Love, Lyla

Like This, Get These:
The Beatles – Revolver, Razorlight – Up All Night, The Velvet Underground & Nico – Andy Worhol

Jonathan Widro is the owner and founder of Inside Pulse. Over a decade ago he burst onto the scene with a pro-WCW reporting style that earned him the nickname WCWidro. Check him out on Twitter for mostly inane non sequiturs