Travis: Ode To J. Smith

Travis' second album, The Man Who, is an immaculately

crafted piece of mopey, codeine-slowed jangle that was purchased by 97 percent

of the Scottish population upon its release. Subsequent albums yielded a lower

balance of good ballads to self-pitying dreck, but until now, Travis has never

gone back to the "All I Want To Do Is Rock" virus that unwisely kicked off its

career in Britpop's wake. Ode To J. Smith shoots for "edgy" and "rocking," but winds

up sounding like latter-day Oasis. Lead singer and songwriter Fran Healy has

always had a chip on his shoulder about the perception that Travis somehow

isn't cool, but there's no solution to that problem in typically watery lyrics

to songs whose titles ("Friends," "Broken Mirror") tell the whole story. The

lyrics to "Long Way Down"—"Mama… I'm too young to die!"—should

theoretically get the band a little closer to Queen, but no such luck. The

atmospheric slow-burner "Broken Mirror" fares only slightly better; it's all

prolonged guitar tones and light hi-hat tapping. Blissfully short at 37

minutes, Ode To J. Smith is the sound of a band too boxed-in to do the hooky

melancholy it used to do so well, but too neutered to really rock out.