Travis: 'The Boy With No Name'

Back from a much needed extended break from making dreary indie records, Travis return with new album ‘The Boy With No Name’, and they are distinctly still very, er, Travis. Fran Healy’s characteristic vocals mean you can’t help but want to slit your wrists on more than one occasion in the duration of this album, but it is without question the boy has an exceptional gift for beautiful lyric-writing, and manages to avoid making every song sound exactly the same, the fatal error of their last studio album.

Standout tracks ‘Selfish Jean’, a darker side to the boys, and ‘Battleships’, a beautifully simple track reminiscent of ‘The Man Who’, make the album worth a listen, but it is without doubt that if you’ve never liked Travis, this album isn’t about the change that. Your mum will still love them, student halls will still be playing it across the country, but there's nothing here to give the comeback a bang. A nice, soft, gentle record, but nothing genre or stereotype breaking here.

Released on 7th May 2007 by Independiente.

Written by Hannah Atkinson.