Travis
L.A. Times

The Scottish band Travis, now an institution of British rock and an example of indisputable and enviable artistic longevity, reaches the milestone of their tenth studio album.

Despite some missteps (few, to be honest), the four from Glasgow have arrived at this new "L.A. Times", the second consecutive album where the pen has firmly returned to the hands of frontman Fran Healy, freshly turned fifty-one. Recorded in the U.S. studios of Skid Row and produced by a renowned name like Tony Hoffer (previously worked with Beck, Phoenix, and Suede), the new album consists of ten tracks aiming to describe and dissect daily life in a metropolis like Los Angeles, the city where the good Fran has lived for the last ten years.

Healy himself has described the new work as the band's most personal since the masterpiece "The Man Who", the second album that brought them to international fame; today as then, some "tectonic plates" have shifted in the life of the frontman, sparking a relentless and profound lyrical self-analysis comparable to that already dissected in the 1999 album.

Musically, the work opens with a distinctly Travis-esque number like "Bus", already released as the third single, before shifting to the more American-sounding second single "Raze The Bar" (a beat with a hint of black music built on a pounding piano) and enriched by the collaboration with friends Brandon Flowers (The Killers) and Chris Martin (Coldplay). "Live It All Again" is a melancholic acoustic ballad typically Travis, performed with extreme delicacy by Healy, its mood suddenly interrupted by the Kinksian British pop of the obvious lead single "Gaslight", featuring horns, choirs, and again piano.

Those who loved Travis more akin to the post-britpop at the start of their career will find something to their taste within the notes of "Alive", which would have fit perfectly on that great album "The Invisible Band" and sounds as if it were a distant cousin of "Side", and the more upbeat "Home". "I Hope That You Spontaneously Combust" surprises with its guitars suspended between Beck and Blur, before the album returns to more traditional sounds with the slow "Naked In New York City" (initially created during a writing session in the period of "The Man Who", and you can feel it) and with the brief and intense folk promotional track "The River".

The title track, even rapped, closes yet another great album, marking yet another great work for a band that seems to never exhaust their talent in crafting melodies as if they were fine and precious craftsmanship.

Best track: Raze The Bar