I was listening to it today and I was surprised by how much I liked it. Objectively it’s a decent album, one of the better post-Morning Glory albums that frankly sits comfortably next to the first two. It’s a lot better than Be Here Now, at least.
DiScus
It’s certainly the best of their latter days and definitely the only one past Be Here Now I can stomach (I like Be Here Now btw… well most of it). Born On a Different Cloud and Stop Crying Your Heart Out are up there with the best songs they ever recorded. Absolutely loathe Little By Little though; a total Noel snorefest
Hindu Times was a choon!
Can’t get on board with this, it might be their worst album (possibly tied with Don’t Believe the Truth). Force of Nature, Hung in a Bad Place, Little By Little, Probably All in the Mind, She is Love are all dreadful. It was Noel trying to steady the ship after being panned for branching out a bit with Standing on Shoulder of Giants.
Be Here Now (for all its obvious problems) at least has a sense of big ridiculousness about it, you can tell the band are enjoying themselves. None of the later albums have that.
I’ll probably never put on one of their albums in its entirety ever again, but if I had to it would be The Masterplan (I know it’s a compilation, but still their best) > Be Here Now > Definitely Maybe > Standing on the Shoulder of Giants > Can’t be arsed with the rest.
The original is better though
was the album that got me properly into them as a 13 year old (already liked some of their songs through the 90s but The Hindu Times made me go and buy this album). however going back to it in recent years there’s a couple of decent tunes and a lot of shite. the two albums after were both a bit stronger i’d say.
i’d like to be able to defend it cos of the personal formative connection but sadly not sure i can.
I remember Planet Sound pointing out the similarity between The Hindu Times and this song too
Some scathing reactions, I guess one person’s floor is another’s ceiling. I listened to Don’t Believe the Truth today, personally it bored the arse off of me. Never liked Lyla or the Importance of Being Idle which doesn’t help. Always liked the Heathen Chemistry singles, don’t really see anything wrong with Little by Little.
I still think it stands as quite an interesting, overlooked post-Britpop album. Bit of a meat and potatoes rock effort, as though they stopped trying to be the best band in the world and decided to write an ordinary rock album instead, rather than attempting something big (and failing). Their distant 3rd best album imo.
Was it always this slow? Forgotten how plodding it is.
The Abba track is probably the pick of the bunch to be fair
aye it was a lot faster in my head too! maybe they did it faster live?
Lyla’s proper shit, no idea why they picked it as the lead single. horrible drums, especially considering who’s drumming on it. always been a big fan of Part of the Queue on that album though.
agree Little by Little is decent, maybe a bit bland but i definitely thought it was great in 2002
I’ve only listened to it once but on first impression Don’t Believe the Truth sounds like they tried to make a generic mid 60s-esque blues album, and decided to throw some early Stones and a bit of Dylan in there. It even looks like a mid 60s blues rock record from the cover.
But somehow it just doesn’t sound right. It sounds like it’s supposed to be a modern take on that era of music, but they can’t pull it off and it’s actually quite an unpleasant listen, like it just doesn’t belong in 2005, although I should probably give it another chance. I like Let There Be Love and The Importance of Being Idle isn’t bad.
I always thought that i liked ‘Don’t Believe The Truth’, however, i put it on recently and there is a lot of crappy stuff to skip past…Keep The Dream Alive, Love Like A Bomb, Guess God Thinks I’m Abel. Awful stuff.
I disliked it more than I expected. I was under the impression it was supposed to be a semi return to form or something. I wouldn’t usually use ‘awful’ to describe duff albums by bands I like when usually it’s just a case of too much filler/being a bit uneven, but in this case I think I would.
Didn’t really like Dig Out the Soul either. I really like the singles but the rest of it is forgettable.