How smart is being stupid? Travis, for one, are a band seemingly unconcerned
about wearing their intellects on their sleeve. "I'm not a doctor, I"m
not a lawyer," sings frontman Fran Healy on "Happy," "Give me
a prescription and I"ll set it on fire / Blow me a kiss and I"ll be
happy for the rest of my life."
Expanding on such sentiments, it could also be argued that, despite their
past in art school, Travis have less in common with the archetypal paint-room
postures of Blur or Talking Heads, and more with the heroic, transcendental
dumbness of The Ramones and Iggy Pop.
This is a band who have spoken enthusiastically of what they've christened
The Stupid Factor. Their hugely lovely, endlessly ebullient debut album is full
of such notions--always firing from the gut before the head, forsaking the
clever for implied wisdom. Awash with melody and a great larynx-ripping rock
voice, it's like going on a stag night with Socrates.
It could be contended that this was clear from the off. Debut single "All I
Want To Do Is Rock" was a divinely anthemic song akin to something by Radiohead--but it was also really a tune about shagging. Emphasising its endearing
braindead content, it featured the line "I'm a foot without a sock without
you."
"All I Wanna..." opens things here. And as with Travis's career-on-45, it's
followed by "U16 Girls." The opening line? "Na na na na na na na na na na."
Thus, Travis's majestically dumb credentials are established, only for the first
new song to cut things wide open. "The Line is Fine" begins as a bar room
stomper, but flares into a fantastically unlikely combination of Nirvana, Rod
Steward and Wet Wet Wet.
Fran's voice, featuring both Marti Pellow's gurning cheekiness and Kurt's
sandblasted rasp, accounts for most of this brew, while the lyrics add a further
nod toward Nirvana. But while the lines like "Open up the
window...Standing on the ledge" could be taken as intimations of
suicidal glamour, as with the following "Good Day to Die," they actually seem to
be suggesting the opposite. With its melodic reprise of Celtic traditional
"Whiskey in the Jar" (as played by Thin Lizzy) and the lines "Your head
is a brick wall / Your heart is a football," "Good Day..." appears to be
more about the ancient dictum "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger"
than topping yourself. It climaxes with adrenalising hollers from Fran and
beautiful flashes of Andrew Dunlop's guitar--rich with sustain and feedback,
combining pleasing elements of Bernard Butler, Neil Young and Slash from Guns N'
Roses.
The weakest element on the album is "Tied to the '90"--their "Digsy's
Dinner." If puny as a single, it works better in context. Whatever, the second
half of this record more than atones for such whimsy. "Happy" is The Stupid
Theory manifest, and the beauteous, lilting "I Love You Anyways" has something
of Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross" and latterday Rod--but in a good way. "Funny
Thing" is Travis at their most Radiohead, an understated anthem opening another
display case for Dunlop's guitar. "More Than Us" is a minimally sketched ballad,
while "Falling Down" (mostly just Healy and piano) manages to be an odd,
beautifully sombre torch song.
It's been reported how much good Travis will draw from their
support on this month's Oasis tour. That's undoubtedly true, but the fact that
Noel has taken them out bodes well for him too. Travis are trad rock, but
they're a huge and welcome shift from the tiresome real-rock puritanism of Ocean
Colour Scene. And even more appropriately, on its own terms, Good Feeling is
clearly the most accomplished, most heart-stoppingly exciting debut British rock
album since Definitely Maybe--a position it's likely to retain for years
rather than months.
4 out of 5 stars
Select
October 1997
by Roy Wilkinson
They may have art school origins, but TRAVIS have hit paydirt with an agreeably meatheaded chunk of rock.
