It's hardly unusual for a band's comeback LP to be heralded a "return to form" - especially if its predecessor met with as lukewarm a response as Oasis's fifth album, the dismal Heathen Chemistry. Most critics resisting the hype as pure damage limitation, though, would have been wrong-footed by opening single Lyla, which landed straight at number one in the charts (until it was toppled by that most fearsome of nemeses, The Crazy Frog) and reignited faith that Oasis could still be one of the UK's leading guitar bands.

Certainly, the self-assured swagger of opener Turn Up The Sun, written by bassist Andy Bell, suggests that the band feel invigorated and optimistic. Behind the usual wall of rowdy guitars, Liam exhorts us to "love one another" (a bit rich coming from a man who regularly dishes out the disses, but hey), before everything drifts into a dreamy landscape of reverberating plucked guitars. If what followed could only build upon the promise of this first track, then Don't Believe The Truth could well be everything it sets out to be. Instead, disappointingly, what we find is an over-reliance on a handful of tried-and-tested techniques, and the ever-present, ponderous echoes of the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who, now venturing beyond homage and into the realms of mere pastiche (Part Of The Queue appears to be The Stranglers' Golden Brown played at the wrong speed, for instance).

Moreover, the brothers Gallagher continue their tendency to ham-fistedly bash away at a scanty selection of chords as if they're trying to tenderise meat with a plectrum, as on the rudimentary Mucky Fingers. Where subtlety and harmony are allowed space to breathe - in the ecstatic layers of piano, mouth organ and guitars on Love Like A Bomb, for example - Oasis are capable of conjuring up moments of genuinely enjoyable and inspired music.

Such moments, though, are all too rare, and the band's apparent determination to eschew any experimentation continues to drain their music of any real vitality. Our verdict? Don't believe the hype...