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Travis have it all | |
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Travis have it all | |
In a world which deems it impossible to be all things to all people, Good
Feeling manages to make you laugh, sing, cry, dance, hurt and, yeah,
rock...the list isn't endless, but the wonderment is. If they occasionlly come
across like Radiohead--on the claustrophobic yet victorious portrait of
childhood, "Good Day To Die"--that's the beholder's eyes and ears
playing tricks, confusing memory of feeling with memory of sound and vision.
It's also because, like Thom Yorke, Fran Healy has a voice so open and ready, so
expressive and powerful and shameless, that you scurry for the only comparison
you can scrape together in time.
And if people sometimes desperately compare Travis to The Wonder Stuff,
it's because we've forgotten that music can induce an elation beyond the
admittedly invigorating arrogance of an Ashocroft or a Gallagher, and we end up
desperately searching for analogues. Any analogues. Travis don't sound like The
Wonder Stuff. They sound like a shot of freedom in the curtailed life of a
nine-to-five machine. There will be no more important rock album released this
year; not by Oasis, not by The Verve, not even by Radiohead. Why? Because,
instead of working out how best to affect you, Travis just play the truth as
they see it. As it is. Travis play the music you feel, and you feel the music
they play.
Halfway through the burning lullaby that is "More Than Us," comes
the line "Everybody wants a hand / But I'm too busy holding up the
world / To carry on." Sung in mass harmony, it's so clear and graceful,
conjuring a mood so stoical yet tragic that the carriage dissolves in a mist of
empathy and the journalist has to turn away from the other passengers again.
After the intoxicating vim of Side A--with the cards-on-the-table
persuasion of "All I Want To Do Is Rock," the drunken swagger of "Midsummer
Night's Dreaming" and the euphoric vertigo of "The Line Is Fine,"--songs like "More Than Us" and the delicate angst of "Falling
Down" or the desolate lament of "Funny Thing" fill the second
side of "Good Feeling." It's the side you'll find yourself all the
more drawn to.
But don't think for a moment that there's any disparity between Travis's two
sides. Don't think you'll only like half of what they've done here. Travis, more
than any band I have ever know, can be all things to all people. All the
time. At least that's how it seems to one person. A person who, pulling into
Blackpool North station, has never felt less stupid in his life.
Melody Maker
The 06:30 to Blackpool North. It's very early and the journalist has only
had two hours sleep. The journalist is overtired and he is sobbing into the
hands held over his face. He has just hit the line "I'd really love to
come and go / Oh, won't you stay with me?" in Travis's "I Love You
Anyways" for the first time. It's a mixture of pride, utter admiration and
that gut feeling which travels instantly to the tear ducts when you hear
something which perfectly expresses the only thing currently on your mind. The
journalist realises that, should he be chosen to review Travis's debut album,
he'll have to mention this. The journalist worries about looking more stupid
than usual, then curls up, hugs himself better and stops worrying.
September 13, 1997
by Robin Bresnark
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