Travis ‘L.A.Times’ Album Review

If ‘L.A. Times’, the tenth album from Scottish indie rock favourites Travis proves one thing, it’s that the Fran Healy led outfit write music that could be timeless. However, by wrapping up the album with the expletive-laden title-track, Travis have, like Healy’s brutal American LA home city, shown that there is also something much grittier underneath that familiar acoustic-pop of their back catalogue.

Starting with the hazy, gentle strum of the pondering “Bus”, ‘L.A.Times’ saunters into life continuing with recent single “Raze The Bar”. The single sees Healy penning a tribute to his now-closed favourite New York Bar. It’s also a track which sees Travis rope in the not-insignificant talents of Coldplay frontman Chris Marten and The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers. Three minutes of relaxing, reflective acoustic indie, the single is something Marten described to Travis as “the best song you’ve ever written.”

Quite a compliment especially sitting in an amongst an album full of material which, even at this stage in their career, shows Healy and Travis are still more than capable of delivering an album full of top quality additions to their set list.

Moving on from the gentle strum of the openers, things head down a more upbeat, acoustic-pop route for the brilliant “Gaslight” while, despite gentle and jaunty in tempo, “I Hope That You Spontaneously Combust”, as the title alludes to, has a darker undertone lyrically.

That being said, “The River” takes the listener down a more frantic path as it brings up the rear of the album while, the aforementioned title-track sees calmly delivering the tense, unapologetic yet beautifully poetic finale to this album. It’s also a track where Healy sounds like a man who, even despite hanging out with the likes of Chris Marten and Brandon Flowers, has lost none of that Glaswegian straight-to-the-point attitude.