Travis – The Light Appears

10 Favourite Songs of 2024

Posted on January 1, 2025 by Michael

10. Marshmello and Kane Brown – Miles On It: The cheese factor gets ratcheted up to 10 on this club ready country track. The country style verses of double entendres while singing about a truck gets cranked up when the beat kicks in on the chorus. I probably heard this about 20 times while driving the family around Nova Scotia on a family vacation and every time it came on, the radio got turned up a little bit louder.

9. Shaboozey – A Bar Song (Tipsy): When this track first started getting airplay in the spring, I was shocked that it was a new song and not something that’s been around for 10 years. After really listening, its easy to hear why. The song incorporates J-Kwon’s 2004 hit “Tipsy” and the acoustic guitar strumming sounds very similar to Oasis “Wonderwall”. Another country song about drinking is not what the world needed but Shaboozey takes all these influences and makes it his own on the infectious single.

8. The Smile – I Quit: The downtempo track appears towards the end of The Smile’s second album, Wall of Eyes. I first heard the lyrics “I quit/This is the end of my trip” shortly after abruptly quitting a new job that did not work out as expected. I heard it while out walking on a gloomy wintry day that was more wet than cold. To hear that in that moment was exactly what I needed. I started a terrific new job just a few weeks later.

7. Vampire Weekend – Capricorn: A lyrically unique song tipping it’s cap to those born late in the year. Ezra Koenig’s vocals sound echoey that give the song a dreamy quality over a bed of music that is percussion heavy but with pretty piano lines and deep bass. It’s a really well crafted, terrific single from a solid album.

6. Travis – Bus: Somewhere along the line I lost track of Scottish band Travis. They’ve continued releasing albums while I had moved onto other things. While listening quite a bit to their second album, The Man Who this year, I decided to give their newest album The L.A. Times a try. A fine record that starts with this classy single. It’s a wistful track that sounds lovely with the mournful string section. Travis is back and for the first time in ages, I was back with them.

5. The Libertines – Shiver: The Libertines returned in 2024 with their first album in 9 years. Released early in the new year, “Shiver” is a look back over the majesty of the Albion empire. It’s a classically, elegantly wasted track that is one of their finest.

4. English Teacher – R&B: An updated version of a song the band originally released in 2021, Lily Fontaine’s sings of writing songs for others and not herself on this fiery anthem. The grungy bass of Nicholas Eden gives the track an edge of menace that really bursts into life in the final outro. Listening to Fontaine makes me feel how I felt the first time I heard Poly Styrene from punk band X-Ray Spex. A vital new voice in indie rock music.

3. Idles – Grace: One of the eye catching images in 2024 was seeing Coldplay’s video for “Yellow” on the screen while Idles’ single “Gossip” played over top. The song has a strong low end while singer Joe Talbot sings of “make me pure” and “love is the thing”. It’s a mantra tailor made for these times before it all ends with a snippet that sounds like The Beatles’ “A Day In The Life”.

2. Jessica Pratt – Life Is: The first song on her latest album, “Life Is” sounds like a country song beamed in from another planet. The dreamy vocal makes it sound timeless. While the music doesn’t change too much throughout the tune, it’s Pratt’s voice that swirls around and captures the emotion. It’s a song that can be listened to again and again and discover something new in every repeat.

1. Fontaines D.C. – Starburster: The first single off the band’s 2024 album sounds exactly like it’s title. The track sees singer Grian Chatten spitting out words like a champion rapper on a song that always keeps the kick drum kicking until the relief of the breakdown. It’s a genre smashing track that is an anthem, the chaotic lyrics will have listeners wishing for a new salamander and feel like they can take on the world, burstering some stars along the way. The appearance on Jimmy Fallon was my go to listen as it captures the band in full flight. Iconic.

Album Reviews

Travis – The Man Who (1999)

Posted on September 25, 2024 by Michael

I’m not sure where I would have first heard about Glasgow band Travis back in 1997 when they released their first album, Good Feeling. It was likely Alternative Press magazine that I had a subscription to back then who would regularly write reviews on the newest British buzz bands. The album is a solid debut with highlights that include the heavier “All I Wanna Do Is Rock”, “U16 Girls”, and the fun romp of “Tied to the 90s”. The CD sound tracked many bus rides up and down Pembina Hwy on the way to the University of Manitoba.

Two years later the band released their sophomore album, the introspective The Man Who. I moved to London for a couple of years on May 10^th 1999, the album was released exactly two weeks later. On first single and first track on the album, Healy sings of hearing “Wonderwall” too much on the radio on a song who’s beginning guitar lick sounds eerily similar to that smash hit. It was Travis’ highest charting single thus far.

Second single, “Driftwood” ups the ante. The simple acoustic guitar verses lead into an anthemic chorus that ramps up even with the melancholy strings on a song about someone drifting through life and not living up to their potential. At that year’s Glastonbury performance, Travis caught lighting in a bottle as they sang, “Why Does it Always Rain on Me?” just as the skies opened up. The single shot the band to number one in the UK on a song that was inescapable that summer and was their breakthrough hit in several other markets. The song is one of the endearing hits of the late 90s.

While sounding similar to their other singles, “Turn” hits a bit harder as the fourth single on the album that went top 10 on the UK singles charts. Like the previous songs, this could be heard in pubs across the nation as the punters flocked to the band’s softer brand of British rock. Other notable songs include the moody, atmospheric “The Fear” and “As You Are” that sounds similar to the band’s singles.

The album started Travis’ association with producer Nigel Godrich who was also working with that other popular UK band, Radiohead during that time. While the album does tend to swing towards an extensive amount of ballads, it all sounds of one… and certainly one moment in time. Travis’ The Man Who – a classic of late 90s British rock.

9/10

Album Reviews

Travis – L.A. Times (2024)

Posted on September 9, 2024 by Michael

For their 10^th studio album, Glaswegian mainstays Travis worked with producer Tony Hoffer whose impressive resume includes Beck, Metric, and Belle & Sebastian. Bringing in famous friends, “Raze the Bar” is a catchy midtempo track with a poptastic chorus that features mates Chris Martin and Brandon Flowers. “Home” is a good modern indie rocker that gives the kids a run for their money while “Gaslight” adds some horns on a track that could have been on their mid 90s debut.

The title track sees singer and main songwriter Fran Healy deliver biting criticism of society with a talk/rap style of vocal. Best is second single “Bus” that has a 60s vibe shot through present day Glasgow, a bit melancholy and utterly brilliant. Even with Healy living in sunny L.A., the band still retains their damp Scottish attitude with blasts of sunlight streaming through.

7.5/10