CD Review: Where You Stand

Yes, Travis is still around and yes, this, their seventh album, is much of the same pleasant-sounding almost-rock music that the band have been putting out for years.

The Scottish four-piece outfit don't seem to be trying very hard on their new songs, with tracks like Mother and Moving sounding almost indistinguishable from each other.

The band's always been almost boring, but saved themselves for years with inventive song-writing and clever lyrics sung gorgeously by frontman Fran Healy.

In fact, it is Healy's sweet, dreamy voice that makes Where You Stand listenable, but there's nothing here that is as beautiful as As You Are (from 1999's The Man Who) or as rousing as Sing (from 2001's The Invisible Band).

The upside to this otherwise mediocre effort is that you're likely to go rummaging for your old Travis CDs to remind you why they were so great, so long ago.

Formats: CD, digital

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