There are bands that are easy to enjoy, even if they’ll never be your favorite band, like Travis – and that makes them great. You don’t feel like you have to keep completely up-to-date on everything that they’re doing, but you’re always pleased when they put out a new record, never disappointed. Even as they do some experimentation with their very appealing indie-pop sound, L.A. Times is some more very appealing Travis.
Indeed, Travis’ very easiness comes through at the start with both sad opener “Bus” and the following relaxed anthem “Raze the Bar”, for they are a group who makes sounding good seem easy. There are some notable excursions on Times, such as the small plucking “Live It All Again”, the neat low-slung kiss-off “I Hope That You Spontaneously Combust” (frontman Fran Healy still has his humor), and the close-up spitting Healy lyrics in the titular closer. But there’s also the Travis sway you’ve known since The Man Who twenty-five years ago in the wry “Gaslight” and hopeful “Alive”.
Travis are never going to change the world or change your life, but they do make the world better and your life better, once again.
