Travis: Francis Healy, Douglas Payne, Andy Dunlop, Neil Primrose.
Additional personnel: Millennia Strings (strings); Jason Falkner (keyboards).
Recorded at Ocean Way Studios, Los Angeles, California and Air Studios, London, England.
Travis's second album THE MAN WHO made them one of the biggest bands in the UK. With all eyes upon the group for a follow-up, the foursome opts not for the deconstructed expectation-confounded tactics of Radiohead's KID A, but instead continues on the same path they'd already been heading down. THE INVISIBLE BAND is considerably softer than the band's previous albums, pursuing the ballad as transcendent mode of expression, but the popcraft is just as winningly melodic, the guitars just as jangly and inviting, and Fran Healy's songs as subtly accessible as ever.
There are a few unusual touches (the banjo on "Sing," the electronic squiggles ending "Afterglow"), but for the most part, THE INVISIBLE BAND is full of simple, infectious melodies, intelligently expressed emotions, and a warmth that finds Travis aligned with the likes of Coldplay in open-hearted opposition to the Oasis/Blur "it's all about me" school of Britpop. Closing with one of the album's most powerful songs, the affecting, broken-hearted ballad "The Humpty Dumpty Love Song," THE INVISIBLE BAND is an admirable display of Travis's continued strength and staying power.
What the critics say...
Rolling Stone (6/21/01, pp.75-6) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...[The album] succeeds by approximating...Simon and Garfunkel fronting U2....Healy's unrelentling earnestness gets raised to new heights by his newfound confidence....sympathetically disarming."
Spin (8/01, pp.138-9) - 6 out of 10 - "...An LA album in all senses of the term - pretty, temperate, and incredibly surface....These are lovely songs that mean little, signify less, and, sometimes, are all the better for it."
Q (7/01, p.122) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A great record...It saddens, it soothes, it cheers...music for real people....equal to, if not better than, that second record [THE MAN WHO]..." Mojo (7/01, p.94) - "...A strong record..."
Uncut (8/01, p.88) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...It hits the spot at the two extremes of the Travis experience - the quietly introspective and the mass singalong....Here are songs of loss, betrayal, uncertainty and insecurity..."
CMJ (6/11/01, p.4) - "...Mixing both melancholy and optimism in gorgeous little pop songs....Travis doesn;t exactly rock the house, but INVISIBLE BAND will no doubt rock the world of those who love warm and tender pop with substance..."
Mojo (Publisher) (1/02, p.71) - Ranked #33 in Mojo's "Best [40] Albums of 2001".
NME (Magazine) (12/29/01, p.59) - Ranked #23 in NME's 50 "Albums Of the Year 2001".
NME (Magazine) (6/9/01, p.38) - 8 out of 10 - "...Plenty of Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, latter-day Beatles and even...Roy Harper. Timeless, simply expressed, inescapably real feelings..."
