Don't Believe The Truth
by Oasis
  • Record Label: Sony
  • Release Date: May 31, 2005
Metascore
64

Generally favorable reviews - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 28
  3. Negative: 5 out of 28
  1. The A.V. Club
    70
    Yes, the rumors are true: Oasis has--for the first time in a decade--made an album worth hearing.
  2. Drawer B
    10
    Mediocre melodies ride atop formulaic songwriting.
  3. Village Voice
    30
    In the end, it's Oasis's attempts to capture former pinnacles, from trying to re-create the simple sunny-side-up pleasures of "Live Forever" to trying for another album-ending mountain like "Champagne Supernova," that keep their latter-day output so entirely forgettable.
  5. Under The Radar
    60
    Half good and never outstanding. [#10, p.113]
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  6. Q Magazine
    80
    The Gallaghers sound more comfortable than ever in their skins. [Jun 2005, p.102]
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  7. Mojo
    80
    Their best in almost a decade. [Jun 2005, p.100]
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  8. Blender
    60
    Noel Gallagher has even less to say than he used to. [Jun 2005, p.112]
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  9. Drowned In Sound
    30
    A big stinking pile of rubbish.
  10. Filter
    86
    The most immediate tunes are undoubtedly the headbobbing rockers, but it's when Oasis stretch themselves that they are at their most interesting. [#15, p.91]
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  11. Rolling Stone
    70
    It's the first Oasis album in years that doesn't sound like pale self-imitation. [2 Jun 2005, p.70]
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  12. Uncut
    40
    The lack of urgency makes it feel like we're eavesdropping on a well-heeled Britpop Survivors Group rather than the site of fresh rock'n'roll alchemy. [Jun 2005, p.98]
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  13. PopMatters
    60
    Don't Believe the Truth might be the best Oasis album in eight years, but that doesn't mean you won't be shaking your head in incredulity from time to time.
  14. Playlouder
    20
    Yes, 'Don't Believe The Truth' is an improvement on the trilogy of folly that is 'Be Here Now', 'Heathen Chemistry' and 'Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants'. But so what? Can't polish a turd, you know.
  15. The Guardian
    60
    Let's not get overexcited - it's no masterpiece - but this is the first Oasis album in a decade to suggest that they have a future rather than just a huge, asphyxiating past.
  16. Stylus Magazine
    42
    Don’t Believe The Truth is simply Oasis being Oasis with maximum efficiency. Which is to say that if you’re a committed acolyte of the church of Oasis, you’ll love it.
  17. Pitchfork
    47
    There are a lot of reasons this album doesn't gel, not least that Liam Gallagher now sounds like a singing anti-smoking campaign, and the brash, snotty arrogance that once sold "Cigarettes and Alcohol" and "Champagne Supernova" is crushed out by his gruffness.
  18. Neumu.net
    80
    It is, in fact, what almost every other Oasis album has been: Not nearly as bad as overhyped sufferers might fear, not nearly as good as its enthusiasts want it to be.
  19. musicOMH.com
    70
    Better than the first two? Course not. Better than the last three? Definitely.
  20. E! Online
    67
    It lacks the raw energy and tunes that made people want to hum uncontrollably in the shower. Worse yet, the brazen confidence the Gallagher brothers displayed during the early years has faded.
  21. AllMusic
    90
    It's confident, muscular, uncluttered, tight, and tuneful in a way Oasis haven't been since Morning Glory.
  22. Prefix Magazine
    60
    Oasis has given us another album chock-full of jangley Brit-pop numbers and stadium-rockers, and the result is a formulaic rock record.
  23. Spin
    91
    Leanness and vitality have replaced the cokey bloat of their last few studio trips. [Jun 2005, p.103]
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  24. cokemachineglow
    35
    Don’t Believe the Truth... probably isn’t Oasis’ nadir (that distinction arguably being due to 2002’s atrocious Heathen Chemistry), but one could be fooled for thinking so.
  25. Tiny Mix Tapes
    70
    For a few glorious moments, our beloved Mancs have that swagger back.
  26. Entertainment Weekly
    67
    Sure, for 11 songs, these blokes can grind out toe-tapping Britpop, but there are no heart-pounding anthems here. [10 Jun 2005, p.107]
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  27. Alternative Press
    80
    Don't Believe The Truth strips away the layered excess of albums like 1997's Be Here Now to revisit the streamlined pomposity of the group's earliest discs. [Jul 2005, p.182]
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  28. Dot Music
    60
    As musically competent and beautifully-produced as this record undeniably is, strip the vocals and you'd be hard-pushed to identify it as being an Oasis album or enjoy it accordingly.
  29. New Musical Express (NME)
    60
    There's certainly nothing here that'll match 'Wonderwall' or 'Live Forever' for pub karaoke ubiquity, but with this record Oasis are at least tentatively stretching themselves in new directions. [28 May 2005, p.61]
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Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Most Discussed Album of 2005

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 346 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 277 out of 346
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 346
  3. Negative: 48 out of 346
  1. NoelG.
    Oct 3, 2007
    0
    Absolutely Pathetic. This is how you de-rail a career, and yes I think other people out their could write better songs - and they're Absolutely Pathetic. This is how you de-rail a career, and yes I think other people out their could write better songs - and they're probably not being obnoxious, they're just being honest. Maybe you should listen to people who play instruments, and not rich rock stars who's day has come and gone long ago. Altogether, if you haven't heard this album, I'm being dead truthful here - your dead lucky - cause its pathetic. If I could turn back time, I would off happily have had the band call it quits after "Heathen Chemistry", the fact that it took the band so long to write and record this, and scrap so many sessions is just ridiculous and laughable. After all Oasis is about honesty, and I swear to god, their is no honesty in this music anywhere… Full Review »
  2. kazuhirok.
    Jul 12, 2007
    0
    oasis is dead.
  3. carl
    May 25, 2007
    1
    The entire album is really boring , the only song in the entire album that isn't terrible is the importance of being idle.
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