Monday, June 22, 2009

886. Travis - The Man Who (1999)














Track Listing

1. Writing To Reach You
2. Fear
3. As You Are
4. Driftwood
5. Last Laugh Of The Laugh
6. Turn
7. Why Does It Always Rain On Me
8. Luv
9. She's So Strange
10. Slide Show

Review

Yawn. Not bad... but yawn. Travis have clearly been listening to Radiohead and Suede and it shows, but they also take it in a direction which is particularly whiney. So it is packed full of power ballads which do little for me.

For what it is, it is a pretty competent album, well produced, well played and sung, the lyrics are nothing to write home about, but they are also not terrible... even if sometimes they are a bit too whiney, as stated before.

This is really not the kind of stuff that rocks my boat, and even if the album is not totally devoid of humour (notice the song references in Slide Show) it seems to take itself way too seriously. It therefore feels a bit too adolescent in parts. Again, not terrible but very blah.

Track Highlights

1. Why Does It Always Rain On Me
2. Writing to Reach You
3. Driftwood
4. Slide Show

Final Grade


7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The Man Who is the second album by the Scottish indie pop band Travis, and the album that brought them into international recognition. It was first released in late spring 1999, and reached #1 in the UK albums chart, and #8 in Australia. It also helped the band win two BRIT Awards in 2000, when the album was also released in Canada, with "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" as the first single, instead of "Writing To Reach You" which was the album's first single in the UK. The album was co-dedicated to Stanley Kubrick.

Why Does It Always Rain On Me:



1 comment:

tommy said...

Ugh they mention oasis in not one but TWO of their songs!

The only really nice surprise from this album is the hidden track. After the whiny dull pop ballads a line like "you're a bitch, you're a slut, you're a whore" proves that maybe they could have been doing something much more interesting with their album.