I'm So Happy I Bought This Album (Good Feeling - Travis)

Member Name: duskmaiden

Product:	Good Feeling - Travis
Date:	11/11/03 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Happy, a nice mixed album

Disadvantages: sone weak songs, some of the lyrics

Here is a question for you; do you own the Man Who by Travis? I am sure most people have this particular CD in their collection as it sold by the bucket load. I have it but it is not my favcourtie Travis album. My favourite Travis album is their debut album Good Feeling,

I always feel a little bit protective of Travis. I discovered them long before Why Does It Rain On Me became a massive hit and everyone had fallen for the charms of Fran Healy. I fell in love with them in the summer of 1997. This was the long golden summers of my studenthood (The first time around!). I heard Tied to the 90s and felt what a happy jaunty record this is. I then saw them in a tent at the Reading Festival and thus my love affair with Travis became full blown.

Who are Travis??

Travis are a Scottish four piece who first formed under the Beatles?s influenced name Glass Onion, They consist of

Fran Healy vocals, guitar and banjo
Dougie Paine Bass
Neil Primrose Drums
Andy Dunlop Guitars.

They have had four albums Good Feeling, The Man Who, the Invisible Band and the latest one 12 Memories which I have not yet got (I think Santa may buy it for me this christmas)

Good Feeling as I have said was Travis?s debut album and came out in September 1997

So the big question is what is the music like?

Travis are known for their simple, pretty quiet melodies which can be a bit depressing. For those who like these there are some beautiful ballads on the album. However the best songs on this album are very unlike the Travis most people know. The best songs on the album are happy, catchy upbeat pieces of indie pop. In a way I miss that direction as I often feel they have become too mournful!

Anyway hear is my guide to the tracks

1 All I Want To Do Is Rock

This is a belter of a song to start the album with. I love Fran?s voice on this as it is raw and abrasive. I love the idea all he wants to do is
rock. I?m not so sure about rhyming rock with sock and clock. The song seems to be a love song but a funky love song for someone who is high on life and their music. The song is addictive and so are the guitar riffs. Oh and Fran makes some really strange sounds! 9/10

Hey
I'm a foot without a sock
Without you
Love
You seem to work around the clock
Say
All I wanna do is rock

2 U16 Girls.

Another infectious catchy song. I love the nanna naanna bits at the start. This song is about being careful with girls as their looks might be deceptive and they might be under the age of consent.

But when I called her number
Her mother's on the line sayin'
You've no business
As God's my witness
With a child as young as mine
So make sure that she's old enough
Before you blow your mind

I think this is an important subject for a song as so many girls do dress older than they are.
Again this is a rabble rouser of a song and I love one of the lyrics
And her eyes were full of dew drop
The moment I walked in

I just love the image. Another great song 8/10

3 The line is Fine

Another rocky guitar based song dominated by a great guitar riff. For me this might be one of the weaker songs n the album The lyrics suggest to me it is a song about either unrequited love or perhaps someone trying to get back with someone they loved and lost and want back.
Oh and UII love the shouts of Fine at the refrain. Duskman always teases me about the way I say Fine and they sound like me so it comforts me. 6/10

Look at me I'm so disgusting
I will never find another
Quite like you
You make me blue

4 Good Day To Die

I find this quite a strange song. The title A Good Day to Die is morbid and I find the lyrics especially the first lines as quoted below very disturbing.

Where is your mother
Where is you
r father
Two little children
Locked in the cupboard
I always feel the lyrics are hinting at some taboo subject such as child abuse and neglect or perhaps there are references to Hansel and Gretel as there are references to being lost in the forest.
Musically it is another guitar song. The first riff sounds ominous and foreboding. The vocal is sounds pained and is almost shrieked. It ends on a quieter reflective not. A strange song which I never know how to interpret 7/10

5 Good Feeling

The title track of the album. Another one that I never quite know what to make of. It is neither the happy upbeat stuff of U16 girls nor the balladry of Driftwood. it sort of plods along most of the time with a very distant drumbeat but becomes slightly more manic towards the end.
6/10

6 Mid Summer?s Night Dreaming

Back to the upbeat happy Travis that I fell in love with. It is loud and it doesn?t mean much. The lyrics Don?t Ask me now, Had too much to drink head in the sink. Brings up the mood of the song sort of a drunken happy song. 8/10

7 Tied To The 90s

This was the song that got me into Trays. You can not help but sing along with it!! I just like the heys that it starts of it. The riff is happy and bouncy. The song is very much about how crap the 90s are but we belong to them. I love the bit about the 80s
Remember the 80's
(They were something)
Were worse than the 90's
We're stuck in a path
Where fashion is fast
And nothin' is lasting

The lyrics may not be the most philosophical

There's thunder & lightning
It's terribly frightening

But it is such a happy poppy song you just can not help singing along as it is infectious 9/10

8 I Love you Always

This is where the album settles down and becomes more the Travis people know. This is a laid back melodic ballad. It is a love song and it is sung so beautifully.

You were on my mind
Inside the cinema
You looked so beautiful
I almost dried an eye.
Everything is gentle from the vocal to the guitar. A lovely song 7/10

9 Happy

My favourite song on the album! I just love it. It is just so happy and upbeat. It is a simple pop song with simple lyrics about being in love and wanting to be with that person you love!! It just makes me want so sing and dance about in joy. It conveys how I feel about Duskman perfectly
But early this evening
I wanted to be with you
I got on the blower
The next thing I know you're speaking
Now I'm gonna tell you what I've been thinking
And I got a hunch that you're thinking the same thing
And with some luck
We'll be lying together tonight

A must give this 10/10 as it is probably in my top ten songs of all time

More Than Us

Back to a quieter ballad after the exuberance of Happy. I love this song and the sentiments of it. It is about that feeling when you are with someone special but as the song goes @I?m not rally sure if it is love ? The song contains my favourite lyric in this album
More than he
More than she
They all sleep
But we just dream

The song is a delicate fragile song that develops into a beautiful melody complete with strings. Another fantastic song 10/10

10 Falling Down

Another ballad that would not be out of place on the Man Who. It is not as delicate as beautiful as I love you Anyway or More than Us.
The song is another love song and the vocal is very languid with a very little instrument accompanist. The drums are almost
negligible 7/10

Funny Thing
Funny thing almost blends into Falling as it is another thoughtful quiet classic song. It ends with a lengthened distorted guitar solo.. An ok song but not one of my favourites 6/10




I adore and could never get sick of this album. I boug
ht it very cheaply on cassette and would not hesitate to buy it on CD if it snapped or went wonky. Due to over playing it. I love the album as it so varied and there is a song for every mood from being happy and wanting to rock to the quieter more wistful ballads that the band developed on their next two albums. A classic album that you can buy It can be bought from Amazon for a bargin price of #6.66

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