Oasis have been accused of losing it and recovering it more times than any sane mind should rightfully remember, but whatever trajectory their controversial discography takes from here,
Don’t Believe The Truth should come out looking like a rather proud success. Partly, it’s because Liam and Noel sound on such rude form: the younger, fronting with some of the old menace and successfully channelling his rather simplistic songwriting impulses on the lightly trippy, shaker-ridden "Guess God Thinks I’m Abel"; the elder playing some of his more devious tricks, imagining The Beatles’
Revolver played by a Mariachi band on "The Importance Of Being Idle", and doffing a cap to late-period Velvet Underground on "Mucky Fingers".
Partly, though, it’s because Oasis sound like they’re functioning less like a not-so-benevolent dictatorship and more like a real band again. With only five songs written by Noel, contributions from Liam, guitarist Gem Archer and bassist Andy Bell have space to spread their wings a little: in particular, Bell’s "Turn Up The Sun" – a gargantuan opener that sees Liam deliver one of his best opening lines to date ("I carry the madness/ Everywhere I go") – proves mighty testament to Oasis’ new democratic bent. --Louis Pattison
