UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH
SORRYTHANKYOU
Release Date: 23rd Oct, 2000Cat No: SHIFTY0002V
Format: LP
Tracks: Landslide ~ A name ~ Disarm ~ Pedestrian ~ Home again ~ Daylight ~ Shed your skin ~ Advice to a lover ~ Agony ~ Covers ~ Hypnotist ~ I can't wait ~ Let it flow
SORRYTHANKYOU
Release Date: 10th Jul, 2000Cat No: SHIFTY0002
Format: CDA
Tracks: Landslide ~ A name ~ Disarm ~ Pedestrian ~ Home again ~ Daylight ~ Shed your skin ~ Advice to a lover ~ Agony ~ Covers ~ Hypnotist ~ I can't wait ~ Let it flow
LANDSLIDE
Release Date: 3rd Jul, 2000Cat No: DISCOQUICK6
Format: CDS
Tracks: The second single from the album, sorrythankyou.
AGONY
Release Date: 22nd May, 2000Cat No: DISCOQUICK5
Format: CDS
Tracks: Agony ~ Roadside #2 ~ Nightlight.
BUILDING
Release Date: 24th Feb, 1997Cat No: DISCO9702
Format: CDS
Andy Yorke: vocals, guitar
Nigel Powell: drums, keyboards, guitar, vocals
Jason Moulster: bass, vocals
"I set out to write about travelling and about being at home. About someone who travels all over the world to escape from the prison of his life at home and of his own personality. And about the realisation that it's all crap - you have to make peace with yourself and build on what you have. But then inevitably a lot of songs end up being about injustice, and about the fact that nice middle class liberal people are incapable of making a stand against it, paralysed as they are by a million different possible points of view." (Andy Yorke, March 2000)
Talking about Unbelievable Truth's long-awaited second album, 'sorrythankyou', Andy reveals the driving force behind a band that seemed to epitomise so much that music at the turn of the century wasn't: serious, sincere and, above all, brutally honest.
Unbelievable Truth initially came together in 1994; each of them veterans of assorted short-lived bands in their home town, Abingdon. They took their name from the cult Hal Hartley film, whose downbeat intensity and dark humour perfectly reflected the band's brooding nature. Only a few gigs into their existence and they were offered a publishing deal with Zomba. But Andy's calling was elsewhere and so off he went to Russia to work for Greenpeace.
When Andy returned in 1996 and Unbelievable Truth regrouped they were a less gauche, more confident band. Informed by the likes of Talk Talk, Throwing Muses and Elvis Costello they created subtly epic songs that were influenced by Andy's work in Russia. Early reviews concentrated on the almost hymnal qualities of the songs. Very quickly Virgin Records caught on to the band and offered them a deal. Unbelievable Truth's first release, though, was on their hometown label, shifty disco, an adventurous young independent label that had grown naturally out of Oxford's thriving local music scene. 'Building' came out in February 1997 to little attention but has since become a collectors' item, changing hands for £50.
Their first release for Virgin was the single 'Stone', another dose of sweetly claustrophobic folk-pop. Initial publicity for the band tended to lazily centre on the fact that Andy was the younger brother of Radiohead's Thom Yorke, but while critics attempted to draw comparisons between the two bands, there was little common ground musically.
After the groundwork laid by 'Stone', Unbelievable Truth quickly notched up two Top 40 hits, with 'Higher Than Reason' and 'Solved'. Their debut album, 'Almost Here' entered the charts at number 21, gaining ecstatic reviews along the way and selling 20,000 copies in the UK alone. Success in Europe, Japan and America followed and everything was set for even greater things with the second album.
As is so often the case with major labels, things didn't go entirely to plan and in January of this year, band and label parted company.
Re-enter shifty disco, the label where Unbelievable Truth started out. In the three years since their first encounter, Shifty had grown to become one of the most respected truly indie labels in the country and the two were perfect for each other. 'sorrythankyou' finally sees the light of day this summer. It marks yet another step forward for Unbelievable Truth as a band. It was originally going to be called 'Whose Side Are You On?' until Andy realised that was the title of an old Matt Bianco album.
"I am proud of this album", says Andy, "The only reason why we haven't all gone insane, killed ourselves or killed each other is that we feel we have made something of lasting value which deserves to heard. With `Almost Here' we didn't stop to think about what we were trying to achieve, `sorrythankyou is much more defiant and ambitious. I think it's one of the most intelligent, diverse and mature albums I've heard for years. So there."