Travis - The Invisible Band

Now I decide to review this album, more than two months after it hit records stores. I know the music industry is based on first impressions and other things that I couldn't care less about, but I think we can agree that's kind of silly. The music industry seems to be in the business of judging books (bands) by their respective covers (looks, clothes, target market). I find this fact absurd, not only is it impolite to judge a book by it's cover, it's also very ignorant. You never realized the beauty in certain things until you've spent a considerable amount of time with them (say two months). With that said, I think The Invisible Band is quite an album. Maybe the first time I listened to it I didn't get it, but after two months it's very clear that this album is a masterpiece of modern pop music. Producer Nigel Godrich took all the well-composed, well-written ideas that the Travis fellows came up with and helped them turn them into musically profound songs. By adding electronic sounds, banjos, and mess of other instruments to create an engulfing smoke of sound around Fran Healy's vocals, they went well beyond the limits of their second album The Man Who. Furthermore, these guys did it without getting by on their looks (no offense). While many swear that Travis we born from the forehead of Radiohead, I say, "shame on you." Yeah, I know they used the same producer who helped Radiohead sculpt OK Computer, but he definitely took Travis in a completely different direction. The bottom line is Travis writes songs that aren't going to change the world, but they will make you sing and feel warm all over. Like the Beatles (yeah, the Beatles) before them, Travis just takes the world we all live in and scribbles all over it with pretty colors. Don't we all need some color in our lives? [www.travisonline.com]