Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bold & Beautiful., June 7, 2008
It's been a while. Four and a half long years, now, since their last studio album, and almost a decade since they bounced onto the scene with 'Good Feeling'. That debut had them down as the next big Brit-pop band and erstwhile Oasis chums / prodigies, even if the rest of the world hardly noticed their obvious talent. It was only the breakthrough "Why Does It Always Rain On Me" a couple of years later that launched them into the mainstream. Two albums and a collection later they have freed themselves of any expectant hype and can return to making sweet music. They always have done of course, and you really shouldn't be put off that this is a CD that both you and your mum can enjoy. For goodness sake, your Gran may do too.
Be warned that it's an album likely to get under your skin - in a good way that is. Something that seems so unlikely when you play it through for the first time, as it is so perfectly unassuming. Starting off with barely a whimper that is the intro to "3 Times And You Lose" it is the antithesis of going in with all guns blazing. But the track nurdles around with a listless pleasure, and harmonies that waft in the breeze. Uncannily simple, and marvellously crafted without really trying.
The "Lust For Life" beat behind "Selfish Jean" gives it a more obvious pop feel, and somewhat flyaway at that. But it's a worthwhile tempo change that would otherwise leave the album too samey. "Closer" really shouldn't be a such a strong song as it has an almost dreary quality to it, yet still a strong melody and easy hook doesn't let you down. A more complex rhythm makes "Big Chair" beautifully different, and even then you'll be humming along to a song that you feel you've known all your life - on the first listen.
Real credit to taking a leaner approach to production also. "Battleships" is a gem of a song of relationships gone wrong, and it could have turned into a grandiose Keane-esque, multi-layered extravaganza in the wrong hands. Instead it is kept clean and simple, where the words are allowed to shine and not sink. "Eyes Wide Open" has more of a plodding, ballsy quality, squeezed into a tight and very handy 3 minute track.
Travis do have a trademark sound that is "Writing To Reach You" or "Flowers In The Window", which is that easy, relaxed folkiness, often with the odd banjo plucked in for good measure. That soundprint is rarely far from this album, with "My Eyes" the latest amalgam of that style.
"Under the Moonlight" is deceptively good song, and yet another why you wonder why it's not been done before. "Out In Space" has a chillier simplicity, whilst the final "New Amsterdam" is a perfect homage to what is now New York. Talking of a "park that is Central" may be a tad contrived, but the unsophisticated view of what is outwardly so complex, sums up their ethos for the whole album.
Subtlety is often confused with growing old in music, and it's definitely the former here. They bounded around in their "Tied to the 90's" days youth but now have established a real understanding of what they are doing, giving them far more confidence to understate their case.
A certain Scottish music guru famously called Coldplay "bed-wetters", and the same criticism could be wielded at Travis of this CD (if you don't actually listen to it that is), though the Glasgow originated Fran Healey & Co would be more likely to punch such detractors out cold. Besides, it's not true. To deliver simplicity this beautiful is both bold and beautiful.
|
|
|
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intimate!!!, May 8, 2007
Travis return with their brand of melodic but melancholic rock, and that choir boy voice, aped since by fellow Brits Coldplay and Keane.
Titled after lead singer Fran Healey's son who was nameless for a while after being born recently, "The boy who had no name" opens with the downbeat Simon & Garfunkel-like "3 times and you lose", followed by the upbeat Motown-like "Selfish Jean".
Lead off single "Closer" is a rather dreamy, melancholic tune, with superb, echoing vocal effects.
Other standouts are "Big chair", the sweeping "Eyes wide open" (with edgy guitars), the touching "My eyes" (which seems to be about Healey's son), the ballads "One night" (pretty and jangly), "Out in space" (complete with alien-like effects), and the woozy "Colder". "Under the moonlight" features KT Tunstall.
Tight harmonies, beautiful guitar and piano work, and personal lyrics, just what we've come to expect from Travis!!
|
|
|
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Back to form, May 14, 2007
After the dark, protest-song side trip that was 12 Memories, Travis have returned to what they do best (and did FIRST, long before Coldplay, Starsailor, or any other). This album sits very nicely next to The Man Who and The Invisible Band, and while it doesn't reach the brilliance of the former, it most certainly is equal to or better than the latter. There are bittersweet lyrics, happy jangly guitars, and even some violin here and there in the songs, and the textures work very well. These guys are decent musicians.
As in albums past, Fran's lyrics remain in "forced rhyme" mode, which can occasionally grate on the ears, and sometimes just plain don't make sense ("I wake up to find you lying awake with your hands in your head..." Eww!), but most of the time they work. I also like some of more experimental sounds Travis pursues (experimental for Travis, anyway), especially the bass-driven song, Big Chair. Unfortunately, this album also contains what is arguably the WORST Travis song ever, New Amsterdam. There is a hidden song called Sailing that makes up for this misstep, however.
I find Travis to be a band that, like CAKE or some others bands, sounds best when they stick to their time-tested formula. Some bands need to rework their sounds from album to album to keep it interesting for themselves and others (Radiohead, to name one), but Travis has a pop-perfect sound that is utterly timeless. Why mess with it?
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
~ Travis
~ Travis
~ Travis
~ Travis
~ Travis
album The Boy With No Name 
