8/10

After a 25-year silence, Oxford’s Unbelievable Truth reemerge not with bombast, but with grace. Their new EP 'Citizens Band' feels less like a rapturous comeback and more like a quiet continuation, as if the trio pressed pause on their shared story and are now gently unspooling the next chapter.

The collection's title-track sets the tone with a meditative piano motif and an undercurrent of vulnerability that speaks to the ache and necessity of connection. While the closer 'Madison', previously released as a single, balances melancholy with warmth. Its melodies ache with the weight of reflection, yet there’s a lightness in its arrangement that keeps it afloat as it plays. 'Non Combatant', perhaps the EP’s emotional apex, begins in near-stillness. Opening with a calm yet alluring vocal before layers of strings and percussion bloom around it, creating a restrained but sweeping embrace that slowing builds from start to finish.

What makes 'Citizens Band' resonate so deeply is the band’s evolution since they last had something new to share. You can hear the time passed in every phrase, every sigh, every gentle swell. Andy Yorke’s voice, still instantly recognisable, now carries the lived-in weight of years gone by. Jason Moulster’s bass anchors with quiet certainty, while Nigel Powell’s percussion pulses with purpose, showing that they are not returning for nostalgia's sake, but to deliver something far more sincere.

This isn’t a rehash or a retro revival. It’s three friends, older now, returning to the place where it all made sense. 'Citizens Band' is understated and unshakable. It doesn’t scream for attention, it simply reminds you what it feels like to really listen.