Product Description

Coming four years after the 2003 release '12 Memories', Scottish four piece Travis return with their fifth studio album'The Boy With No Name'. Executively produced by Nigel Godrich and with extra production duties coming from Mike Hedges and Brian Eno, the album sees the band continue with the anthemic indie pop that inspired the likes of Coldplay, Keane and Starsailor. The lead single 'Closer' is included.

Track Listing

1. 3 Times And You Lose
2. Selfish Jean
3. Closer
4. Big Chair
5. Battleships
6. Eyes Wide Open
7. My Eyes
8. One Night
9. Out In Space
10. Colder
11. New Amsterdam

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3694 in Music
• Released on: 2007-05-07
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Boy with No Name, the fifth album by Scots alt-rockers Travis is their first offering since 2004's Singles. First impressions are of a band eager to break new ground - a positive sign given Travis haven't impressed for what feels like far too long. Opening track "3 Times and You Lose," gives the first sense of something more dynamic occurring within the band's modus operandi - a feeling that's continued with the finger snapping side "Selfish Jean" (a clear echo of an old b-side) and the strangely upbeat, slightly minatory "Big Chair". The pared down lullabies on The Boy With No Name are good too: songs like "Out In Space," in particular show a more candid, open-minded side of the band. While it's not close to the golden glories of The Man Who or Good Feeling, The Boy With No Name is undoubtedly Travis's most diverse and enjoyable work in a while. --Danny McKenna

Customer Reviews

Decent ... but easily forgettable
The latest studio-based offering from Travis (who seeing the fortunes of rivals Take That improve also decided to jump on the come-back band wagon)offers a few happy go lucky songs that are perfectly suitable to nodding your head or tapping your feet to, but after a while you do grow tired of it and none of the songs stand out. They should have called this 'The Album With No Name' as no one will remember it in 5 years time!

Are Travis getting old?
I think they are, and as such are slipping into the unfortunate pattern that bands that are getting old fall into. The challenges of producing an album later on in your career to match the magic debut and follow up can't be overstated, and the basic thing that usually happens is this - the class of the songwriters prevails once, twice, maybe three or four times, and the rest of the album leaves a listener slightly disappointed. And that is what this feels like to me.

For me, Closer, with it's beautifully sad chorus and minimalist arrangement, and the incredibly bouncy and cleverly written Selfish Jean are two of Travis' best ever songs, and would sit happily alongside their hits from 90s. Excuept that they sound like Travis now - the sound is full and interesting, and the songs have a different 'sound'. Alongside this as the best songs here are Battleships and My Eyes, which sound like they could come from The Invisible Band (think Pipe Dreams or Flowers in the Window), except they have a more melancholic edge.

Beyond that, the album has the quality that Travis' songs never fail to have - they are very nice to listen to. The melodies are lilting, some lovely lyrics, (some better forgotten,) but above all they have that familiar feeling that the radio (and indeed my bedroom) has had for ten years since The Man Who hit the world and made people sit up and take notice.

Their Best
As a reletively devoted fan, i think this is my favourite Travis album.

This is an LP that, while being devoid of the stand out tunes of yesteryear, has a beutiful overall sound, which takes parts of their early (Selfish Jean), middle (My Eyes), and later (Eyes Wide Open) work and amalgimates them together into the quintisentual Travis album.

Of course it is popular, and of course the chords are arainged in an enjoyable 2/4 beat, but simple songwriting can be beutiful too.

Some track ratings:
3 Times And You Lose - Fantastic opening. Whymsical country guitars tell of the symplicity of small town existance, which ironically provides the perfect backdrop for New York City in the video.
Selfish Jean - Travis up the tempo for a track which harks back to the good ol' days of Good Feeling.
Closer - I'm sure you've heard it on the radio or TV, just classic Travis songwriting in its catchiest form.
Big Chair - Beutiful driving track with staccato piano and running bass. Think bleak Scotland.
Battleships - Personally, contrary to some, I don't like this track. It bores me.
Eyes Wide Open - Fran blasts out another tale of childish woes. Not as disturbing as Blue Flashing Light by any means, but we are talking about a more refined sound these days.
My Eyes - Travis at their mature peak. A song about happiness and contentment around one's family. Just beutiful.
One Night - 6/10 Travis track.
Under The Moonlight - Ditto My Eyes.
Out In Space - One thing that I always love about Travis' albums is that the end tracks are never just slightly poorer versions of the same thing at the start. This track is a simple acoustic number, with Fran's lyrics sounding like they are coming from a yard away from you, rather than through your sterio. Rather like Slide Show in The Man Who.
Colder - A spacier song that screams of what Travis can do if they want to do things differently. More intricate and different sounds can be found here. Nigel Godrich deserves some praise here I am sure. My personal favourite.
New Amsterdam - A tale of new begginings rather than a sad adeu...

Overall, I am delighted with this album, which genuinely talls a story about the band. As usual it is a true piece of art, and the art is often forgotten by many bands today because of a quest to mean something more and to be 'cool'. Maybe the reasoning for the intensely modernist background in the album cover is that it mimics the band's enlightened style, rather than the post-modern view that everything must be cynical, ironic, and not concrete (which is what many groups write of). It's a thing with charm and personality, just make sure you play it all the way through to properly apreciate it. This is why it is my favourite Travis album, because the journey appears to find the perfect ending, while still harking back to the start, unlike previous incarnations where you felt the story could go on.

So, for their contribution to music as a whole I give Travis 4/5 stars, and for this album as a piece on its own I give it 3.5/5 stars. A quality album, which while isn't in the top band of pop music production around the world today, is still worth many many listens.