In many ways, this Travis record is no better or worse than previous Travis records. You still get your plangent guitars, your harmless jangle and Fran Healy’s way with an inoffensive semi-melody. You also get a video in which the members of the band all prance around like babies to a song that sounds like Remember You’re a Womble. Have they always done that sort of thing? Maybe. Let’s be honest, I’ve not exactly been keeping track. The question here is: should we be showering praise on Travis simply because they’re performing at optimum Travis levels? Doesn’t that amount to moving the goalposts a little? We don’t say the brutal crushing of the miners was just Thatcher doing what Thatcher does best and award it four stars, do we? And neither shall we with this.
