Don't Believe the Truth

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Don't Believe the Truth
Don't Believe the Truth cover
Studio album by Oasis
Released May 30, 2005
Recorded January 2004 - February 2005 in London, England (Metropolis Studios, Olympic Studios, Strangeways Studios, and Wheeler End Studios) and Los Angeles, California (Capitol Studios and The Village)
Genre Rock
Length 42:52
Label Big Brother
Producer(s) Dave Sardy, Noel Gallagher
Professional reviews
Oasis chronology
Heathen Chemistry
(2002)		 Don't Believe the Truth
(2005)		 Stop the Clocks
(2006)


Don't Believe the Truth is the critically acclaimed sixth studio album by Oasis, released on May 30, 2005 internationally and a day later in the United States. Each regular member of the band contributed to the writing of tracks for the album and this is the first record to feature the drumming of Zak Starkey, son of Beatle Ringo Starr and the current drummer for The Who, replacing Oasis' longtime member Alan White. The album is thought to be a return to form by the band.

The album's lead-off single, "Lyla", is a heavy yet melodic Who-influenced song. But the decision to have it on the album was a controversial one, apparently prompted by the label's feeling that there wasn't a suitable lead single among the tracks originally presented. As a result, the decision was taken to record "Lyla", a song which Noel had written and demoed a year previously, but which wasn't recorded by the band during the previous recording sessions. It was decided that Dave Sardy would remix Noel's original demo with Liam recording a set of lead vocals and Zak adding a fresh drum track. "Lyla" reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and number nineteen on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart. After having initial reservations about the choice of the first single being taken out of the hands of the band, Noel, who initially wanted "Mucky Fingers" to be the first single, has now reluctantly conceded that the song has indeed "done the business".

Liam has also apparently made a big impact on the album with his developing songwriting. Noel has also claimed that the Bob Dylanesque album is his favourite of the last four, because all members have contributed to it. This, he claims, has given it a different feel to a typically Noel-written Oasis album. (Interestingly, he claimed the same for Heathen Chemistry, where the songwriting duties were divided in a similar way.) Various influences permeating the record allegedly range from (perhaps unsurprisingly for Oasis) The Beatles to the Velvet Underground to The Coral to Bob Dylan and to The Kinks.

The album is the first where regular duties were divided between the bandmembers. On some of the tracks regular bass player Andy Bell handled guitar, while Gem and Noel contributed bass to other tunes. Newest member, drummer Zak Starkey, described the sessions with the band as "amazing", referring to the musicality of each member: "They are all songwriters. They are all guitar players. They are all producers. And they are all fucking drummers."

The album also charted at #1 in Japan, making them the first British artist to achieve the feat in 25 years, in a chart where mainly domestic artists dominate the top spot.

The album won the award for Best New Album in the 2005 Q Awards. Oasis also picked up the Peoples Choice Award.

Contents

[edit] Recording

The globe-trotting recording process for Don't Believe the Truth was prolonged and troubled. It was originally supposed to be released around the Summer / Autumn of 2004, with an initial 3-4 week session produced by Death in Vegas duo, Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes. Recording began after Alan White's departure (their management however claimed that there were some demoes from the songs written before the regular sessions with his drumming) in January 2004 at Sawmills Studios in Cornwall, the same place where Oasis had recorded their debut album Definitely Maybe. These sessions were completed but the band weren't happy with the results. Noel has commented since on numerous occasions that there was no problem with the work done by Death In Vegas, but he felt the songs they were working on were simply not good enough to form a record, and although Fearless attempted to convince Noel of the worth of the work done, Noel felt a break was needed in which new material would have to be written. In Noel's own words: "we were trying to polish a turd". According to Noel, around 10 tracks were worked on with Death In Vegas of which 6 were "not even good enough to make the b-sides". Four of the tracks which eventually appeared on the album were worked on with Death In Vegas, those songs being: "Turn Up The Sun", "Mucky Fingers", "A Bell Will Ring" and "The Meaning of Soul", although all of these had extra work done to them or were re-recorded before being released. Noel has also said that the one great thing to come out of those sessions was "a great idea for a b-side which will come out sooner or later".

After a short break in which a bunch of new songs, including "Let There Be Love", "Lyla" and "Part Of The Queue" were written, the band reconvened at their Wheeler End Studios with Noel in the producer's chair. The band were joined on these sessions by The Who's drummer Zak Starkey. Although they were happy with the songs they were recording, Noel was uncomfortable with taking such a head-on role and making harsh decisions seeing how the band was supposed to be a democracy with everyone writing and recording.

In June 2004, Oasis debuted two new songs, the Liam-written "The Meaning of Soul" and the Gem-written "A Bell Will Ring" at two live shows in Poole and at the Glastonbury Festival. Both the new songs and the band's overall performance got mixed reviews, but Noel denies that this had any effect on decisions to change the production duties.

After hearing of the band's production problems from Oasis manager Marcus Russell, American producer Dave Sardy expressed interest in taking over production duties. Sardy was given tapes of existing recording sessions to mix, and after his work got the thumbs up for the band, he arrived in the UK to oversee new recording sessions at Olympic Studios in London. These sessions didn't last long before he asked the band to travel to Los Angeles and re-record most of the album there, as he felt more comfortable working in a studio closer to home. With the band eventually agreeing to this, recording sessions began at Capitol Studios in October 2004 with the band spending around 9 weeks there.

[edit] The leak

In April 2005, four tracks from a promo disc leaked: "The Meaning of Soul", "Mucky Fingers", "Keep the Dream Alive", and "Let There Be Love".

The full album found its way onto the Internet on May 3, 2005, when Apple accidentally put the album up for sale on their iTunes Music Store service in Germany. Whilst there was no official comment by Apple or by Oasis management, it was speculated that Apple simply got "May 30" confused with "May 03" or "May 3".

[edit] Track listing

Music sample:
  1. "Turn Up the Sun" (Andy Bell) – 3:59
  2. "Mucky Fingers" (Noel Gallagher) – 3:55
  3. "Lyla" (Noel Gallagher) – 5:10
  4. "Love Like a Bomb" (Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer) – 2:52
  5. "The Importance of Being Idle" (Noel Gallagher) – 3:39
  6. "The Meaning of Soul" (Liam Gallagher) – 1:42
  7. "Guess God Thinks I'm Abel" (Liam Gallagher) – 3:24
  8. "Part of the Queue" (Noel Gallagher) – 3:48
  9. "Keep the Dream Alive" (Andy Bell) – 5:45
  10. "A Bell Will Ring" (Gem Archer) – 3:07
  11. "Let There Be Love" (Noel Gallagher) – 5:31

[edit] Bonus tracks

  • "Can Y'see It Now? (I Can See It Now!!)" – 4:19 (Japanese CD release)
  • "Sittin' Here in Silence (On My Own)" – 2:00 (Japanese CD release, and available as a b-side on the "Let There Be Love" single)
  • "Pass Me Down the Wine" – 3:50 (U.S. iTunes release, and available as a b-side on the "The Importance of Being Idle" single)
  • "Eyeball Tickler" – 2:47 (UK and Canadian iTunes release, and available as a b-side on the "Lyla" single)

[edit] Bonus disc: Live at the Metro

At Best Buy stores in the United States, the album was packaged with a bonus promotional disc featuring tracks from a June 11, 1994 performance at The Metro club in Chicago, Illinois.

  1. "Rock 'N' Roll Star" – 5:31
  2. "Columbia" – 4:47
  3. "Live Forever" – 4:19
  4. "Cigarettes & Alcohol" – 4:18
  5. "Supersonic" – 5:09

[edit] Other tracks

[edit] UK special edition

A limited edition version of the album was released in the UK which included a 30 minute DVD featuring interviews with the band and other staff who worked on the album, the promo video for "Lyla" and additional cover artwork. These features were released in the U.S. on the DualDisc edition of the album.

[edit] Credits

Liam Gallagher vocals
Noel Gallagher lead guitar, vocals, producer
Andy Bell bass guitar, guitar
Colin "Gem" Murray Archer rhythm guitar, lead guitar, keyboards
Dave Sardy producer, mixing
Zak Starkey drums (tracks 1, 3-11)
Lenny Castro percussion (track 8)
Martin Duffy piano (track 4)
Terry Kirkbride drums (track 2)
Henry Phillpots mixing (track 2)
Paul "Strangeboy" Stacy mixing (track 2), piano and mellotron (track 11)

[edit] Singles

Cover Information
Lyla
  • Released: 16 May 2005
  • Writer: Noel Gallagher
  • Producers: Noel Gallagher & Dave Sardy
  • Chart positions: #1 (UK)
  • "Lyla", released by Big Brother on May 16, 2005. It was the band's seventh UK number one when it reached the spot in the first week of its release. The song also debuted at #31 on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart and has reached #19 since then. The song leaked on the Internet during late March 2005, weeks before its May release date, after an unauthorised early premiere on Polish radio station Radiowa Trójka
The Importance of Being Idle
  • Released: 22 August 2005
  • Writer: Noel Gallagher
  • Producer: Noel Gallagher
  • Chart positions: #1 (UK)
  • "The Importance of Being Idle" was released as the second single from the album in the UK on 22 August 2005. It went on to become #1 in the UK charts on the 28 August 2005. The next week, British tabloids built up the rivalry between Oasis and Blur again when Blur frontman Damon Albarn's virtual group Gorillaz single "DARE" was released, and knocked "The Importance of Being Idle" out of the top position.
Let There Be Love

[edit] Chart info

The album went triple platinum in the UK in the first week of 2006. It reached #1 in the UK Albums Chart on 5 June with first week sales of just under 238,000. It was also the 9th fastest selling album ever in the UK.[citation needed] In an unexpected revival of fortunes, Don't Believe the Truth entered the U.S. charts at #12 scanning 65,000 copies first week, the highest any Oasis album has reached there since 1997 with Be Here Now, although its chart stay was brief.

As of August 2006 the album has sold over 2.5 million copies all over the world (915,000 in the UK alone) and is still selling in small portions to this day, With the album expecting to pass the 1,000,000 sales mark in the uk in the near future.[citation needed]

[edit] Release details

Country Date Label Format Catalog
Japan 25 May 2005 Sony Music Japan CD EICP 515
United Kingdom 30 May 2005 Big Brother LP RKIDLP30
CD RKIDCD30
CD/DVD RKIDCD30X
United States 31 May 2005 Epic Records LP E 94493
CD EK 94493
2CD (Live at the Metro) EK 94583
DualDisc EN 94582
Oasis
Liam Gallagher | Noel Gallagher | Gem Archer | Andy Bell | Zak Starkey
Tony McCarroll | Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs | Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan | Alan White
Discography
Studio albums: Definitely Maybe | (What's the Story) Morning Glory? | Be Here Now | Standing on the Shoulder of Giants | Heathen Chemistry | Don't Believe the Truth
Compilations: The Masterplan | Stop the Clocks
DVDs: Live by the Sea | …There and Then | Familiar to Millions | Definitely Maybe – The DVD
Films: Lord Don't Slow Me Down
Related articles
The Rain | Britpop | Owen Morris | Creation Records | Big Brother | Awards and nominations
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