The truth about Oasis album Don't Believe The Truth
30 May 2025, 17:10 | Updated: 30 May 2025, 17:18
As Don't Believe The Truth turns 20 years old, we delve into the making of the record and its impressive stats.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Don't Believe The Truth is 20 years old this week.
The sixth and penultimate Oasis album was released on 30th May 2005 and included plenty of highlights, with singles Lyla, The Importance of Being Idle and Let There Be Love, but how much else do you know about the album.
Get the truth about Don't Believe The Truth below
Read more:
- How to listen to Radio X Oasis
- Lyla at 20: 10 facts about the Oasis single
- How Oasis were discovered at King Tut's in 1993
- 16 Oasis "deep cuts" we'd like to hear on the 2025 reunion tour
Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth trivia:
-
Don't Believe The Truth was a joint writing effort
The album included writing contributions from members of the band other than Noel Gallagher. Andy Bell is credited on album opener Turn up The Sun and track nine Keep the Dream Alive. Gem Archer is noted for his contribution to A Bell Will Ring and Love Like a Bomb and Liam Gallagher is credited on the latter as welll as The Meaning of Soul and Guess God Thinks I'm Abel.
-
Zak Starkey features on the album
Don't Believe The Truth was the first album to feature the band's auxiliary sticksman and the son of Ringo Starr after the departure of Alan White.
-
The album also saw the band swap roles
Don't Believe The Truth was the first album where band members recorded on other instruments. For instance bass player Andy Bell played the guitar on some tracks, while guitarists Gem Archer and Noel Gallagher contributed bass on other songs.
-
It was supposed to be released in 2004
The album was meant to be released a year earlier, but the recording process was prolonged. After an initial 3-4 week recording session with Death in Vegas, the band didn't like anything they had played and decided until the electronic band were next free to work on it again.
-
Its lead single Lyla almost never made the album
Oasis - Lyla
Not everyone was sure Lyla was the right choice for the lead single, either - with Noel admitting at first he wanted their first single off the album to be Mucky Fingers.
It ended up proving to be a good move, since the track gave Oasis their seventh UK number one single.
-
The Lyla video was short in a Hackney church
The video for Lyla, which sees actress Katrine De Candole star as the titular character - was filmed at Hackney Round Chapel. And... in a full circle moment Liam Gallagher went on to perform the track for the first time there as a solo artist.
-
Rhys Ifans stars in The Importance of Being Idle video
Oasis - The Importance Of Being Idle (Official Video)
The Dawn Shadforth-directed video, which pays homage to the 1960s kitchen sink drama, sees the Welsh actor as a charismatic funeral director who - as it turns out - is also the deceased.
-
The Importance of being Idle also went to the top of the charts
The black and white video must have worked a charm, because it gave the band their eighth number one single.
-
Let There Be Love features Liam and Noel and on lead vocals
Oasis - Let There Be Love (Official Video)
This is the third and final song to feature both Liam and Noel share lead vocals. Acquiesce and Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is were the first and second.
-
Let There Be Love broke the band's number one streak
After the chart-topping success of Lyla and The Importance of Being Idle, the band were due to score a hatrick of UK number ones on the album. However, Let There Be Love sadly only made it to number two on the UK charts.
-
The album is the 32nd fastest selling in the UK
Don't Believe The Truth reached number one in the UK Albums Chart with first week sales of 237,865, going on to become the 32nd-fastest selling UK album. It went on to go triple platinum in the UK.
Read more:
- Noel Gallagher at 58: Facts about the Oasis guitarist and chief songwriter
- Which film is Tony McCarroll watching on the cover of Definitely Maybe by Oasis?
- Oasis have no plans for new music & reunion will be the "last time around," says co-manager
Radio X Oasis is available now, across the UK on DAB digital radio, Global Player, the official Radio X app, your smart speaker (“play Radio X Oasis”), and on iOS or Android.
