Travis

Travis' second effort, The Man Who, is a more subdued album than their exuberant debut. Their blustery pop has grown into a textured, almost delicate sound that makes the most of Fran Healy's beautiful, falsetto-friendly voice. At one time, you couldn't mention Travis without also mentioning Oasis. With this album, Radiohead become a more appropriate comparison.

Travis are the kitten's knickers, Britannia's latest favorite band, four impeccably humpy
Scottish boys who love Pavement and their mums, in touch with their feelings and asking
nothing from the universe except the chance to sing a few songs about the girls they like.
Their second album, The Man Who, was the U.K.'s fourth-biggest seller last year (behind
Shania, Boyzone and, er, Abba's Gold), and it's easy to hear why: Travis play sen... More >

You don't have to be an 'N Sync fan to prefer a world in which the young and the gormless swallow a song called "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You" to one in which their pablum of choice is a little something entitled "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" Are there really adults who find sustenance in folk-pop that blurs all distinctions between the lyrical and the moony? Of course. Have been since Donovan. (Grade - B-)