A lesser-known album from Oasis celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and fans are still split on one thing. Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher are set to reunite for a series of sold-out shows across the globe later this year.
The duo’s first performance together in 16 years will see them play shows at Wembley Arena in London, Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, and Heaton Park in Manchester. Though the pair are set to perform together for the first time in over a decade, an anniversary for their lesser-known album sees fans still split over the quality of it. Whether songs from it are played on this upcoming tour is yet to be seen.
Don’t Believe the Truth, which released on this day, May 30, in 2005, still splits fans on whether or not it is a quality release. It became one of the fastest selling albums in UK history, and received critical acclaim upon release.
Oasis fans took to the r/Oasis subreddit and suggested the album was still very solid, though had “filler” moments which were “boring and bland.”
One user asked: “Opinions on Don’t Believe the Truth? What are everyone’s thoughts and opinions on Don’t Believe the Truth? I’ve only listened to the album start to finish once and it really bored me. It’s an album I really want to like and I’m considering giving it another chance, should I?”
Fans remain split on the album, with one suggesting it is not as good as critics of the time said it was.
One user wrote: “Singles are very good but fillers are boring and bland, Heathen Chemistry is a better album overall despite having some weak moments. I still prefer Don’t Believe the Truth singles to those on Dig Out Your Soul though.”
Another added: “I love the album, but I just think it suffers from poor production. The songs are good, but they all sound muffled and don’t have that wall of sound the first two albums did.”
A third wrote: “It’s the best one of the last three albums. It did feel like a ‘return to form’. Importance of Being Idle was massive, and had a spark of clever and original songwriting again.
“A Bell Will Ring had that Beatles ‘up in the sky’ vibe. The retro production, stripped back to just support the songs, was a revelation after the dreary, distortion dad rock-by-numbers approach of HC imo. However, it has aged extremely badly.
“The production sounds like muffled sh** now, the backing elements added to each tune are laughable and sound terrible (like the backing vox on Love Like a Bomb) and Liam is doing a Liam caricature throughout. In retrospect it feels like it was all a bit of a con job, the title quite apposite.”
Another user agreed with the previous comment, suggesting it is one of the most dated album’s in Oasis’ discography. They wrote: “I think this album is the most dated of any Oasis album tbh, it’s just totally unremarkable for the most part.
“The songs are fine but not spectacular and Dave Sardy’s production style of this album is just dreary (much like Noel’s first solo album). Any life the songs had is sucked out by Sardy’s chosen approach.”
