Don't Believe the Truth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2007)
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (December 2007)
Don't Believe the Truth
Don't Believe the Truth cover
Studio album by Oasis
Released 30 May 2005
Recorded January 2004 – February 2005 in London, England at Metropolis Studios, Olympic Studios, Strangeways Studios, and Wheeler End Studios and in Los Angeles, California at Capitol Studios and The Village
Genre Britpop, Rock
Length 42:52
Label Big Brother
Producer Dave Sardy, Noel Gallagher
Professional reviews
Oasis chronology
Heathen Chemistry
(2002)		 Don't Believe the Truth
(2005)		 Oasis' seventh studio album
(2008)
Singles from Don't Believe the Truth
  1. "Lyla"
    Released: 16 May 2005
  2. "The Importance of Being Idle"
    Released: 22 August 2005
  3. "Let There Be Love"
    Released: 28 November 2005

Don't Believe the Truth is the sixth studio album by Oasis, released on 30 May 2005. It reached #1 in the UK Albums Chart with first week sales of just under 238,000, becoming the 9th fastest selling album ever in the UK. The album entered the U.S. charts at #12, with 65,000 albums sold in the first week, the highest any Oasis album has reached there since 1997 with Be Here Now, although its chart stay was brief. The album went triple platinum in the UK in the first week of 2006, and has gone Gold in the United States. As of July 2007, Don't Believe the Truth has sold over 4 million copies worldwide.[citation needed]

Every member of the band contributed to the writing of tracks for the album, and the album is the first where all duties were divided between the band members. On some of the tracks regular bass player Andy Bell handled guitar, while Gem Archer and Noel Gallagher contributed bass to other songs. Don't Believe the Truth is the first Oasis record to feature the drumming of Zak Starkey, who replaced Oasis' longtime member Alan White.

Liam also had a larger impact on the album by his developing songwriting. Noel has said that this album is his favourite of Oasis' 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.

The band embarked on a massive world-wide tour that started off at the London Astoria for their Don't Believe the Truth Tour, visiting 26 countries and playing to 2 million people. This resulted in the making of Lord Don't Slow Me Down, a film later released on DVD.[1]

Contents

[edit] Recording

The recording process for Don't Believe the Truth was prolonged. The album was originally supposed to be released around summer/autumn 2004, with an initial 3-4 week session produced by Death in Vegas. The recording finally began after Alan White's departure 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 felt a break was needed in which new material would have to be written. In Noel's words: "we were trying to polish a turd". Around 10 tracks were worked on with Death In Vegas of which, according to Noel, 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.

After a short break in which many 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 as producer. The band were joined on these sessions by The Who's drummer Zak Starkey. In June 2004, Oasis debuted two new songs from these sessions, 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.

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 was praised by 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] Release

The decision to have the leadoff single, "Lyla", on the album was a controversial one, 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".

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 3 May 2005, when Apple Inc. accidentally put the album up early for sale on their iTunes Music Store service in Germany. While 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] Reception

Considered a rebirth for the band, Don't Believe The Truth was released 30 May 2005, it was met with acclaim from critics and, especially, fans and was received as the bands best record since (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, with critics labeling it as "The most creative lot of tunes over the last decade." Although songwriter/guitarist Noel Gallagher is fond of the album, he has taken notice that it isn't quite as 'Rock 'N Roll' as their previous albums before. Noel Gallagher said to NME: "The finished album is my favourite one of the last four. Because we're all contributing to the songwriting there's a different feel to it. In fact, the only songs that sound like Oasis are Andy Bell's funnily enough." The album triumphantly won two Q Awards: a Special People's Choice Award and Best Album.

During interviews, the band has commented very positively on the album about the creation of it, have complimented Guitarist Gem & Bassist Andy on their creativity and contribution of their multiple tracks making the record sound, described by Noel as "Fresh and a Breath Of New Life for Us all." On 'Rock Profiles' Interviews, both Gallagher and Bell had commented that during their hiatus in 2004, that they had to make a record for their fans and to inspire the people who had became interested them in the first place. Stating that they had nothing to lose since most of their fans and critics had been displeased since the release of Be Here Now, they could make a new and defining record. Critics also praised the straightforwardness of the drumming of Zak Starkey after a decade of the drumming presence of Alan White, and Noel Gallagher confirmed that the former was invited to become member of the band after the end of his tour with the Who in 2007.

In 2008, Don't Believe the Truth was voted the 14th best British album of the last 50 years by a poll conducted by Q Magazine and HMV.[1]

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Turn Up the Sun" (Andy Bell) – 3:59
  2. "Mucky Fingers" (Noel Gallagher) – 3:56
  3. "Lyla" (Noel Gallagher) – 5:10
  4. "Love Like a Bomb" (Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer) – 2:53
  5. "The Importance of Being Idle" (Noel Gallagher) – 3:40
  6. "The Meaning of Soul" (Liam Gallagher) – 1:43
  7. "Guess God Thinks I'm Abel" (Liam Gallagher) – 3:25
  8. "Part of the Queue" (Noel Gallagher) – 3:48
  9. "Keep the Dream Alive" (Andy Bell) – 5:46
  10. "A Bell Will Ring" (Gem Archer) – 3:08
  11. "Let There Be Love" (Noel Gallagher) – 5:29

[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)

Special editions

  • 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] Demos and alternative versions

Demos for Lyla and Let There Be Love were released on the DVD versions of their respective singles as was an acoustic demo of The Importance Of Being Idle. In May 2008, a bootleg CD of alternative versions of some of the songs was leaked onto the Internet. This bootleg also included three songs recorded during the DBTT sessions but remain officially unreleased to this day. The timing of the recording of each of the tracks is unclear as the band recorded the album in at least three different stages, as well as recording a set of demos for all of the songs before the official sessions began.

The bootleg includes:

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Band

[edit] Additional personnel

  • 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

[edit] Release history

Region 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
DualDisc EN 94582

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lord Don't Slow Me Down and tour data
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Oasis
Liam Gallagher · Noel Gallagher · Gem Archer · Andy Bell · Zak Starkey
Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs · Tony McCarroll · Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan · Alan White
Albums
Live albums
Compilations
Demos and EPs
Singles
DVDs
Related articles