Travis - Ode to J. Smith

There is something about Travis that makes me really sad – it is something to do with the fact that they have perennially be labelled as “rubbish” since their third album The Invisible Band. Whilst it might be true that it was not exactly the greatest record ever, it stands as a good example of the time, which was easy listening and catchy pop hooks. It wasn’t always like that though, as for a while they were, like Starsailor and Coldplay, the indie darlings, after the simply overplayed brilliance of their second album, The Man Who. Recently, with 12 Memories, they went grown-up and the masses turned away with glee. 4 years later they followed it up with The Boy With No Name, which was much better aimed at the same audience that gave them their ascendancy and it worked a bit.

But this, the bands sixth album, comes just more than a year later, and with the added interest of many older fans – this is, as it said, is more like their debut album, the blindingly good Good Feeling, a truly excellent debut album.

This album is good. It is much better than I’d expect and is louder, but there are a few problems with it. Firstly, it seems to by trying to be different. Take the title track (well, almost) J. Smith, with the angular riffing and the bass inflected drum beat, it sounds on paper like it should be impressive, but towards the end it goes all Arcade Fire with choral voices and epic crescendo building layers. This is not to say it is a bad song – indeed, it works, but is this Travis?

Again, we are surprised to find on the single Something Anything even more angular guitar and a solo not out of place on a Pink Floyd out takes album. The next track is direcrlty lifted from the first album to the point of parody – it feels so 1990s that waves of nostalgia over come me every time I hear it’s opening bars.

There are a few parts of the album that will make the fans of the middle period of Travis, namely the Invisible Band, will be affronted with. They won’t like it and I think that it is intended to be like that. The album jars from first listen to last and there is a reason for this: Travis are no longer this band. They were, but they are not and have not been in years. So why are they performing these songs, writing these songs now? I don’t know.

What I do know is that it is very good and worth a listen. Whether or not it works as a Travis album, I don’t know for sure, but it proves that they still can sing All I Want to is Rock with fervour and honesty.

6/9

Six Shuffle – 20th February 2008

In this, a new feature, I will click shuffle on my rather large and unwieldy music collection, and discuss the first six tracks that come up, not able to skip any tracks. Discounting podcasts and other such non-music tracks, this should fling up some rather unusual tracks and “not listened to in ages” albums.

Into this wild yonder, we go.

Shatter by Feeder from The Singles
- This is not set up in anyway, but Feeder are the first track to come up in a totally random way. I have enjoyed Feeder for the last few years and have kind of fallen away with this type of music, so I am not really anticipating the new album which is due out this year. Sure, their older stuff holds a keen part of my heart that I have, and is a good stepping stone to leap from pop to rock, but recently they have gone all sickly emo. This track has the louder style of the previous album but it feels too over produced and relies too heavily on a simple melody and chords to get me too excited these days, but I do enjoy it and appreciate a good tune and catchy chorus, which this does have.

Lists, Plans by A Sunny Day in Glasgow from Scribble Mural Comic Journal
- How interesting, the shuffle throws up an album I have no been able to get into yet, but have planned on returning to it. Sunny Day in Glasgow are one of those bands that have appeared in recent years with tunes so different they are hard to categorise. Sunny Day are pretty much exactly like this, with little or now structure to their tracks, and hearing this out of the context of the album is a little surreal. It has an erie tune, slow meandering charm, the sort that these days I might be more inclined to listen to. The shuffle seems to be throwing up some rather interesting tracks. If I was choosing the tracks, I would have skipped this one.

Keep Talking by Pink Floyd from The Division Bell
- This is turning into a bit of a joke, you will not believe that this is random. This track, on of the best from The Division Bell, features samples from Stephen Hawking, of which I have just finished his startling book “A Brief Histroy of Time”. It details his theories on space and time, along with a fantastically written summary of where science is (well, was in 1987) and how and why he finds it so fascinating, and it really is exactly what he was trying to do – make a popular book that without the need for extensive knowledge in the subject to get a feel for the impact of the last few decades in space-time theory. The track has the usual Gilmour riffing and the production, but lacks what makes some other Pink Floyd tracks so special. It does have a good message and sounds great, but that, and Sorrow, from A Momentary Lapse of Reason, are the better of the more recent Floyd albums.

Autobahn by Anberlin from Blueprints for the Blackmarket
- A guilty pleasure they were introduced to me by Jonny, a staunch Christian, and tricked me into admitting that they were pretty good, before the big reveal – they are a Christian rock band. I shrugged – their heavy riffs and emo lyrics are the same as ever other band the same, the are also lyrically obtuse, and not explicitly singing about God and other such things that might have alerted me. I have fallen out of favour with them, though this track sounds good now, it has the produced sound that I am wary of now.

Tangled Up In Plaid by Queens of the Stone Age from Lullabies to Paralyze
- “Oh Yeah...” This is one of the tunes from QOTSA that I really enjoyed listening to and had totally forgotten about them – the album is still sometimes used on rotation, but if you had told me the title I would have no idea what the song was, even though I can quite easily drum along to it and sing every word. It creeps up on you, like almost every other song on that album. Burn the Witch is in my head now, even when I am listening to a different track from that album.

YYY/NNN by Soulwax from Any Minute Now
- This is one of the tracks from the album that I read a review of that suggested it was absolutely garbage, and taught me a good lesson – reviews are most of the time wrong. Any Minute Now is not LCD Soundsystem good, but it is still a good album, and this track is typical of the album, but to be honest, pretty rubbish. One comment I read about this album is the lack of “warm” sounds as it is mostly bass and drums mixed with some lyrics. I don’t know what that says for Metal, but it is a catchy tune, and probably a killer to dance to. Soulwax are more famous for the DJ incarnation 2many Djs, which I have to say I prefer. It is telling that when 2many Djs remixed Any Minute Now, as Nite Versions, the album was better for it.

Bonus Number 7 – I’ve Never Understood by The Reindeer Section

Note: I will endeavour at all times to give you MP3s to download, but when the player shuffles to a WMA, I will upload that.