Travis - The Boy with No Name

Rating

single starsingle starsingle starsingle star

RIYL

Coldplay
Ours
Snow Patrol
AmPop

Label

Independiente

Tracklist

1. 3 Times and You Lose
2. Selfish Jean
3. Closer
4. Big Chair
5. Battleships
6. Eyes Wide Open
7. My Eyes
8. One Night
9. Out In Space
10. Colder
11. New Amsterdam

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The newest endeavor by British rock band Travis is everything a long-time follower of the band could expect. They deliver their special brand of endearing music accompanied by melancholy lyrics crooned ever so gently by frontman Fran Healy. They also manage to further expound upon their substantial catalog. The first few listens may prove otherwise as they have actually kept their sound progression somewhat covert by pulling some of their previously successful elements back into the forefront. A lot of the ballad like elements of their earlier material have returned, but with the artistic twists found on 12 Memories amped up.

“3 Times and You Lose” opens the album with the Healy’s soft confessional over a simple guitar line before being joined by a banjo pluck and drum jaunt. They waste no time in letting the listener know that this album will be an increasingly ambitious foray into sonic play; they follow the haunting melody of the first track with the garage rock swagger of “Selfish Jean” (which sounds incredibly close to a Jet single). “Closer” and “Battleships” follow a slightly more traditional songwriting technique for the band and bookend one of the album’s highlights, “Big Chair”. Its thumping bass line intro grouped with the more spacey guitars, keys, and upbeat drumming sound downright comparable to indie-darlings Mute Math.

This album does see Travis straying a little further from the low-key ballads and leaning more towards animated offerings such as the album’s next two tracks, “My Eyes” and “Eyes Wide Open”. “One Night” is a grand melody that ponders the fragility of human life with urgency and vulnerability; fans of the previous album’s “Love Will Come Through” should take note of this song. “Out in Space” is a basic little limerick with xylophone and the most notable use of background sound effects on the album (the band does seem to have quite a penchant for using them too). “Colder” and “New Amsterdam” top off the listed tracks on the album with sing-along fashion featuring catchy choruses that would have given Billy Joel or Elton John a run for their money. The album actually closes with a bonus track tacked on to “New Amsterdam” at about the 6:00 mark. This ditty (we’ll call it “Van Down by the River”) has some good funk soul thrown into the cheerfully strutting send off.

In all, this album proves to be the most varied work yet from Travis. The biggest drawback to their previous efforts was the sound rarely changed for the duration of the album. Earlier works were very subdued and the last disc was considered too much of a departure throughout. This album sees a perfect blending of the two styles while holding a voice of its own and finding itself more apt for a wider array of listening moods.

--Jeremy Deal

Author

Jeremy Deal
Last updated: 09/29/2009 08:59PM

Comments

rustycage
05/11/2007
07:21AM
I didn't know they were back.
Jeremy Deal
05/11/2007
07:34AM
Age: 32
They're all sneaky like that.

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