The Invisible Band by Travis

Sit back, close your eyes and think of a band you love. Now repeat the exercise and contemplate a band that you hate. The likelihood of either of the bands you have chosen being Travis is remote and therein lies the problem with this four-piece from Glasgow. People are either mildly irritated by them or quite like them leaving no place for impassioned fanaticism or devoted hatred - which rather defeats the point of music, in my humble opinion, because you want an emotional response of one sort or another. But, when considering a band who specialise in albums to fall asleep to, this lack of overt passion may not be too surprising.

Travis have come a long way since their pub-rock posturing of their debut ('Good Feeling') way back when Oasis were the biggest band in the world and no-one knew who Limp Bizkit were. Thankfully, the quartet grew out of this phase and came back with the deeply understated 'The Man Who' which catapulted the band both into the charts and onto the coffee tables of a large proportion of the record buying population in the British Isles with the highly offensive and deeply irritating 'Why Does It Always Rain on Me?' single leading the charge. Thankfully the rest of the album concentrated on what Travis do best -unpretentious songs about love (requited or otherwise) and life. Which leads us nicely to the release of this year's 'Invisible Band'.