It is. And Andy Yorke knows it. However, where Radiohead have blossomed throughout this decade into a gargantuan stadium band, The Unbelievable Truth are in the rare position of being a new group already perfectly at home in the broadsheets as any fanzine or sticky-floored toilet venue. They're a band being rapidly intellectualised and sold to twentysomethings because of The Connection.
Only, they're not like Radiohead. Not really. They aren't a showy band who you'd rush to see, as their Top Man attire, Student Union haircuts and reserved nature illustrate. You would, however, rush to hear them. Because boy, can they play. Early REM, Crowded House, Nick Drake and The Associates all pass across the stage at various points in the set and we forget The Unbelievable Truth are still, essentially, an embryonic band. And where Big Brother's band deal in cathartic, soul-revealing exorcisms, Andy and co play in a Valium-like haze as if they have all the time in the world.
"Forget About You" and new single "Higher Than Reason" show that -on a stripped-down base level- The Unbelievable Truth can cut the mustard. The desolation of Joy Division mixes with a pop tendency to present 10 carefully crafted songs, each shrouded in its own cloak of pessimism. It's Andy's voice which raises the band above the hordes of other dedicate young souls currently doing the rounds -a voice which rises deep from within and leaves his mouth like a thousand butterflies drifting into a slipstream.
The question is: where next? With a sound perfect for a venue where you can stand face to face with an artist and see his tears forming, what will The Unbelievable Truth do when it comes to The Albert Hall? Or headlining Glastonbury? Yes, sensitivity sells, but perhaps it's time to start thinking about the performance (because, as it stands, sorry, but it's just four blokes in T-shirts looking shifty) and they'll then undoubtedly go on to rule the world.
