The Man Who

Listening to this was like eating saltine crackers dipped in skim milk.

Where do I start with this dumpster fire? This is the type of music you listen to when you have no strong opinions about music. It's music for people whose idea of a bad day is that Starbucks got their mochacchino order wrong. Jangly, sad bastard shlock that desperately wants to be Radiohead. I hate that this band exists and if you enjoy this type of music, your taste in music sucks.

Every song on this album is what i hear when i think of riding in the back of the car while my dad drives us home in late October of 2006 and its 4 pm, kinda dark and raining and the car doesn't have a aux so we have to listen to NRJ Radio and they are playing the 11th most played song of the week and i am listening and feeling miserable because i have to do my math-homework when i get home because i have a test tomorrow and all i can think of is that the song thats on the radio is so bland that it makes me anxious even though i don't even really have a music taste yet because i am 9 years old but what i do know is that this aint it

This is like if Coldplay or early Radiohead didn’t have a knack for good songwriting.

just kinda soft rock stuff, kinda catchy background music and nowhere near as gay as coldplay. 3/5

The answer to the question, "What if Keane had a Bends-era Radiohead phase and did very little to hide it?"

The man who bored the world

No one’s saying that this album is better than Born in the USA, right? Just that I like it a lot more. I had to rate today based on how much I loved relistening to this album that I had on almost constant rotation for a few months in 1999. I know every word and can still sing along. I still love some of the moments that happen throughout; a moment in Luv when Fran Healy’s voice seems to crack a little with emotion. Or maybe not. Maybe I’m just being 16 again and hopelessly romantic. Either way, I enjoyed this too, too much.

The musical equivalent of the colour beige.

A timeless sombre soft indie collection made for miserable Scots by miserable Scots. Love it. Almost every track is a stand out including miserable secret track.

Wild how clearly influenced by Ok Computer this record is. I feel like Travis owes Radiohead a billion dollars just based on the song "As You Are" alone. This isn't bad but it's like that meme where mom tells you we have Radiohead at home. This is the Radiohead at home. Update: Holy shit, even "The Last Laugh of the Laughter" (dumbass title) is literally just ripping off "Paranoid Android." This is egregious!

No, please remove this album from the list.

Perfect in every way. Used to listen to this constantly in the first few months of our marriage.

The man who what, Travis? The man who what? It's been 22 years and we still don't fucking know, damn it.

Sounds like every young adult series’ music.

Amazing album all the way through. Tons of great tracks with big sound. "Turn" especially. Sounds of the 90s which were refined from their first album. Secret song is also a surprising but great addition to the album

Attractive voice with quiet acoustic guitar motifs. A bit boring, but still enjoyable to listen to.

“What’s a wonderwall anyway” is a pretty funny line

The production on this album is incredible. The songwriting... less so. Which is kind of a shame, really. Godrich and Hedges are genius-level producers and I hate to see their talents wasted on such a bland and frankly boring album.

No longer content to mimic Oasis, Britpop bands of the late 90’s turned their eye to aping Bends and OK Computer-era Radiohead. I’m applying The Rule (TM) here: If you haven’t heard anyone talking about an album in 20 years, you don’t need to hear it before you die.

being a doofus with extremely limited knowledge, the main thing i was thinking of was rush of blood to the head-era coldplay which i only found out afterwards this predates by like three years. so ig rly the point of origin here is more bends era radiohead? neither of these are especially exciting comparisons for me tbh but this is prob my fave between all three,,,a real warmth is achieved here somewhere between the vocal delivery and the personal-feelin lyrics and the comfy winter vibe, and if its nothing mindblowing i find it very inviting regardless. comfortably uninsistent while still making room for some big choruses and the like, its rly nice! whole project has been full of little one-off experiences that it feels nice to unexpectedly have in my memory bank...cant believe im coming up on 100 days without having missed a single one so far, woooo

I liked all of it. Quite solemn, but the production is very bright and clear. Nice!

À mon humble avis, la suite manquante du groupe de mots désignant cet album n'est certainement pas "speaks french". J'en veux pour preuve le morceau The Last Laugh of the Laughter au cours duquel le chanteur croit duper son audience avec un baragouinage qui ne fera plaisir qu'aux non-francophones : "It's the last laugh of the laughter Sur la dernier page do chapitre On the last day of the year Ma vie Tout ma vie When the spotlight fade away" dit-il selon la retranscription qu'en fait Google. Bien évidemment, le chanteur ne fait, dans la chanson, pas une seule de ces fautes à l'oral et prononce d'ailleurs admirablement bien les passages en français. Mais peu importe. En resumé : un projet ni fait ni à faire.

Tasteful, gentle, soporific. I was expecting proto-indie-filler, with completely forgettable tunes, and it was marginally better than that. But I never need to hear this album again in my life. The production is a little bit edgier and interesting than I expected (thanks, Nigel Goodrich), but at best, at its most hard-rockin', this comes across as OK Computer Lite. Actually, I'm just listening to the coda of As You Are, and this is the worst case of Thom Yorke wannabe-ism I have ever heard. I don't hate this, as it is custom made to be un-hatable, but it has no grit at all.

A weak attempt at a Beatles facsimile, which I found was not uncommon in the 90's. Oasis did similar productions, and I would argue they did it with more passion and balls. Nothing flat offensive about the album, it was just relentlessly forgettable.

I'm surprised I'm not familiar with this band or album, because the sound/style is pretty similar to some of my favorites. Good find.

Strong emotional ties with this one

Loved this album. Great balance of folk and rock

Beautiful album

Kind of melancholic.

Best song is the hidden track "blue flashing light", perhaps because it has not been overplayed; the drumming is unusual at points, but not in a bad way; Fran can really sing, this is especially obvious on "as you are"; not sure why there is a song half in French?!?

I like the beginning of this one. It has an alternative sound, which is my jam. I really liked this album and would look up more of this band. I’m surprised I didn’t hear more of it when it was new.

I liked this one. Best one in a while.

Starts off really great and fizzles out a bit at the end. Favorite tracks are "Writing to Reach You", "As You Are", and "Driftwood". 4 stars.

radiohead in a different dimension. has highlights but mostly forgettable

As a Britpop scholar I found this so derivative of everything else. I know this one has its fans but it’s just lifting wholesale riffs from Oasis and Blur songs that were like 3-5 years old. Why Does it Always Rain on Me is great though

As dull as i remember

My first favourite band

Спокойно, нормально

Keimzelle eines Gefühls des richtigen Ankommens in Köln, so jung, noch so viel übrig, das danach trachtete, versaut zu werden. This album was the soundtrack on the journey of ‚the man who‘ I was about to become. Forever 5.0

Mom can we have mid-late 90s Radiohead? We have mid-late 90s Radiohead at home. Mid-late 90s Radiohead at home:

Before Coldplay came along and knocked them off their perch, Travis were the best post-Britpop tunesmiths around and this here Man Who probably counts as their magnum opus. Going for it is a light, shimmery indie sound inspired by classic Radiohead and a batch of really excellent evergreen singles. Writing To Reach You, Driftwood, Why Does It Always Rain On Me? and Turn all bang in a kinda awesome but wussy way. 3rd track As You Are is also a grower, starting with streaks of I Would Like To Teach The World To Sing and then a bit of added epic Radiohead growl. If there is a downside to the album is that many of its deep cuts are simply too sleepy and relaxed and it judders to a halt actually with closer Slide Show. Bonus Track Blue Flashing Lights the band show all their claws though in a raucous spitting tale of domestic disturbance. 4 stars.

mi è piaciuto molto più di quanto sperassi, mi aspettavo il solito indie brit mugugnato e invece no! un ascolto molto piacevole

These guys were a nice surprise! I'd rank them up there with Oasis.

Melancholic music with beautiful melodies.

Strong performance and atmosphere.

... this is a tricky one. Nothing super interesting, bit very ahead of its time. I hear a lot if "Radiohead" and then ... I don't. Perplexing... So I land MOTR

Huh, I already had this in my library - turned out to be a janky 128kbps copy. I think it was an artifact of the early oughts when I'd offer to sort out the tagging of friends' digital music collections in exchange for absorbing them into my own. Sourced a new copy at a decent bitrate, but I'm afraid it didn't make the music any less bland. I guess blandness is good in a sense, because the singles from this album were _wildly_ overplayed, but they're not triggering too much irritation in me hearing them now. 🤷 I see some people comparing this to OK Computer-era Radiohead.... ...wat. Fave track - uh, let's say "Slide Show" - I liked the little lyrical nods to Beck and Oasis...

Occasionally radioheadesque. Those parts stood out for me

Another entry in the beloved music catalog “601 Albums You Must Listen To Before You Die And Also 400 Bad Britpop Albums From The 90s”

This is nothing.

“The band are credited by the media for paving the way for bands such as Coldplay to achieve worldwide success throughout the 2000s, particularly with the success of The Man Who.” Wikipedia damns. I remember no specifics of the grey wash that followed Radiohead, but I’m guessing there was a lot of critical bullying and it was all deserved. This accomplished wishy-washyness reminds me of the adroitness of Taylor Swift in making the sentimental, humdrum ennui of the privileged fun through concrete detail and cattiness. This is all “Dave is sad, O Dave is sad.”

Typical grey late '90s bilge. Vaguely nostalgic of our time together, Mark, but not enjoyably so. I did once have a mild soft spot for "Writing To Reach You" but it sounded pretty dull and uninspired today. Healy is an awful lyricist - "What's a Wonderwall anyway?" is both clumsy and unfunny, and substituting literally any other sentence in the English language for the rejoinder to "Why does it always rain on me?" would have been an improvement - and there is some real shit on here ("The Last Of The Laughter" features not only frivolous French lyrics, but unpleasant falsetto and a well-behaved sitar in the background) and the obligatory terrible "hidden track". There will be worse from this period/genre on this list, no doubt, so I will own up to liking both the first Embrace album and the occasional Idlewild song if we can please avoid Keane or Snow Patrol. Deal?

Thom Yorke: "He copied my whole fucking flow! ... word for word! bar for bar!"

"The Man Who" is the second studio album by Scottish rock band Travis. This album was a change in musical direction away from the rockier tone of their debut album "Good Feeling." Wiki classified this genre as post-Britpop. They really should have called it Scottish emo. The album was recorded over six months in six different studios with producer Nigel Godrich. The band is Fran Healy (vocals, guitar, piano), Andy Dunlop (guitar), Dougie Payne (bass) and Neil Primose (drums). The album initially sold slowly and had mixed reviews but after the success of their single "Why Does It Always Rain in Me?" and their performance at the 1999 Glastonbury Festival, the album reached #1 in the UK and had positive retrospective reviews. The first single "Writing to Reach You" leads the album off. A wobbly lead guitar and melodic rhythm guitar. Healy has a high tenor voice and goes falsetto. He name checks Oasis' "Wonderall" and they give us an Oasis-like guitar solo. He's mixed up after a breakup. An electric guitar intro begins "Driftwood." A strumming acoustic rhythm guitar and melodic chorus. A pleasant song about someone who has all the potential but doesn't use it. "Turn" has echoing drums and a slashing guitar. Soaring vocals and they get the soft-loud-soft dynamic going in this melodic rockin' song. Their big hit "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" has a violin intro. Catchy vocals. A happy-sounding song and avery good pop-music structure as it builds. Healy's best lyrics in the album and is based on his vacation experience in Israel where he went to a place that supposedly never rains and, of course, it rained the entire week he was there. The released singles, mentioned above, are very melodic and all decent songs. Healy has a very good voice and when he goes into soaring mode sounds a lot like Thom Yorke. Yet, on this album as a whole, there's way too many soft and ballad-type songs. Also concerning the lyrics, about midway through the album, I wanted to grab Healy, shake him and say "wake up and get on with your fucking life." Bad luck, failed relationships, not getting over relationships, unsuccessful friends....woah is me. Post-Britpop..no...it's emo at it's tear-dropping worst. I can only recommend this album for its released singles which individually are good songs.

After listening to this I can confirm that Travis are pretty much the beige, mid-tempo, pop rock band I thought they were. However, what they lack in fun and excitement they make up for with craft - these songs contain really solid melodies and progressions, the format is just a little bit dull for 2022.

Fuck me this is dull. Didn't like it at the time and enjoyed ripping my bro for being a bed wetter. It's even worse all these years later. Christ. So miserable. Don't be Scottish like these whining fannies. Be more like Mogwai, Teenage Fanclub, Arab Strap. Even Belle and Sebastian as at least they have a bit of bite when they are complaining. This is the most sexless softboi music I've heard. Makes early Coldplay sound like the stones. Makes Keane sound like Motley Crue. Mad how this was so popular. Late 90s post britpop was a weird time. Standouts: Why Does it Always Rain on Me I suppose The hidden track had a bit of bite. Why the fuck was it a hidden track?! Low points: All of it. But especially Luv. God this is wank.

The Man Who's album is used by anaesthetists to put patients to sleep naturally. Utterly boring uninteresting shite. James Blunt for even blunter individuals. Going to start logging these because there's so fucking many in this ridiculous list: Britpop album #5/48.

Remembered this as dull, soulless beigery. Listened without prejudice in case it’s aged well. It hasn’t. I’d remembered it correctly. (IMHO)

Whiny the Album Do I hate music?

Put simply, this is the kind of music I remember college dorm dudes playing from their lower bunks on acoustic guitars because of the misunderstanding that college girls liked sensitive guys. 'The Man Who' is sensitive guy music, lots of feelings expressed, sad feelings that we hope might make you girls want to hold us guys with our heads resting snugly between your breasts. ‘Everyday I wake up alone,’ singer Fran Healy laments (his go-to emotion) on ‘As You Are,’ ‘because I’m not like the other boys.’ Another song asks the musical question, ‘Why Does It Always Rain on Me?’ giving rise to yet another question: ‘Why don’t you just get out of it, moron?’ Besides, that’s simply your own delusion anyway, no doubt grounded in some repressed fear you’ve not yet successfully dealt with. 'The Man Who' dredges it all up, in all its weary pessimism, both lyrically and it's accompanying music. There was only one instrumental solo on the entire album, when at 2:40 on ‘As You Are’ Travis finally delivered a fairly decent, brief guitar solo that did rock, temporarily. So, it is down there in these boys, they just have to dig for it. Mostly, though, the melodies, overall tunes, instrumental accompaniments, tempo, etc are soft, slow, and sad. The popular 1970’s soft rock band, Bread, sung and played harder than these guys. The one exception was ‘Driftwood,’ a rare uptempo tune, and with some decent, Dylan-esque lyrics to boot: ‘You’re driftwood, hollow and of no use. Waterfalls will find you, bind you, grind you… So, I’m sorry that you turned into driftwood, but you’ve been drifting for a long, long time.’ Following that respite from relentless self pity, though, we returned right back to… well, the next song title says it all: ‘The Last Laugh of the Laughter.’ I must have missed the last laugh, or I guess it happened before the composition of the song. At any rate, no laughter transpired. Not even a grin, until the final and morbidly slow closer, ‘Slide Show,’ and the most restrained castanets performance I believe I’ve ever heard. It found myself whispering ‘Ole’ with the vigor of said college dude after a Valium and a couple of PBRs. This whole alt folk/rock genre often strikes me as contrived ‘cool.’ That’s not accusatory, I’m just tossing it out there for consideration. What I would like to expose for fact, though, is the unfortunate misunderstanding of the sensitive guy, playing these Travis tunes, ever attracting any girl reaction. Consider with whom, generally, are college girls actually having sex? The bad boy, that’s who! They might eventually marry the sensitive guy, but they’re fucking the bad boy. So, to whom this may concern, if you’re genuinely looking to get laid, then stop learning these self-pitying Travis songs, and cover some Van Halen ones instead.

I like it

A hidden gem that I started this project to find! Never heard of Travis before, but this was a perfect album for me today. Reminded me a lot of Radiohead, maybe a bit like the late Beatles.. really enjoyed, 5/5 will be looking more into their catalog

Perfect pop rock mix with some good memories.

I went in thinking this would totally suck, and sometimes the lyrics do suck, but I walked away from it loving the album. The songs really grasped me and spoke to me. Probably because I'm heartbroken like this guy sounds like

I just enjoyed it

Beautiful record. Was absolutely obsessed with it when it came out and still know all the words today.

This was great! Travis must be a cool guy to make such a good album.

Hahahahahahahaha I actually liked this. I really love the song "Writing To Reach You" and thought the rest of it was genuinely good. I listened to this twice. Did you know that my first concert was Coldplay? I actually cried when I went, I cried so hard because I was so overwhelmed that I was in the same building as Coldplay. I was 11 and that was probably the last time in my life I was genuinely very happy. I have a soft spot for all this whiny ballady turn of the millennium Radiohead-knockoff garbage because that was my very first steps into being a rocker! My equivalent of someone else's Slipknot or System Of A Down or something. I was a truly boring and innocent kid and if I had any edge at all it was only because poor social skills and growing up too fast forced me to fit in better with freaks. Anyway. Travis is one of those bands that started out being praised but would get lumped in with stuff like Coldplay as bad supermarket mom music. This album is somewhere in the middle of early Radiohead and late Oasis. Some of it is chef's kiss melancholic supermarket music and some of it is truly absolute garbage that I kind of forgot how bad it was ever since rap and EDM claimed rock's throne of being the Western world's elevator music. It's very late '90s. That's fine for me. I just truthfully like Gen X mom music slop. Made me feel some kind of way. It's nostalgic for me and endearing. I definitely prefer this to all the garbage that UK music critics pushed after like The Libertines as a reaction against stuff like this.

A change from their rockier past? Well it worked, such a lovely meloncholic vive :) Faves: Driftwoord, Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

I can't be objective when it comes to Travis or this album. Been a fan of Travis since I first heard them and still love them. I loved this album when it came out and still love it. Their music just speaks to me. Favorites: Writing to Reach You, As You Are, Driftwood, Turn, Why Does It Always Rain on Me Would I listen to it again: Yes

own

FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN FEIN

It's a long time since I've listened to this album (or Travis in general). I had forgotten how much I liked this album. Blue Flashing Lights is a contender for my favourite closing track to an album.

Hard to articulate how I feel about an album I've listened to probably over 100 times. When you listen to an album so much, there's a drift in your favourite tracks. Ones you didn't notice so much at first come to the forefront, and what initially peaked your interest in the album can fade back. I think that's a sign of a really great album, one for which you feel all the tracks individually are excellent, and there's some coherence throughout the album. The Man Who fits this criteria for me. This is an album I've enjoyed for over 20 years, and one I expect to put on intermittently for the rest of my life. Not so much a critical review as a love letter. Do not sleep on the hidden track.

Despite the cold album cover I found the music too sound warm. Hidden track at the end has cool guitar in it, worth the wait.

Precursor to the sound of Keane and Coldplay, taking elements of the 90s Britpop giants of Oasis, Radiohead and Pulp. Can't go wrong. But Travis have their own lyrical style and vocal delivery, really enjoy a lot of their work. Fav track: Turn

Love those millennial rhythms and I had missed this band in high school

The album cover reminds me of Bourne Identity that intense ass scene when he goes to stay at that house where he thinks the family is gone but then they come back and he's being hunted around the farm land by that sniper in the trees and they're running at each other in the high weeds. Damn that's an epic movie. I should probably watch it again, that scene is so tense. Anyway, this album was the perfect mood for this dreadful day (11/7/24), it met me exactly where I was at. Jesus Christ republicans are fucking stupid. It seems really unfair that a person with a quarter of a brain cell has a vote that counts equal (actually probably counts way more) than mine. At least the Celtics are good...

One of my favourites, Scotland Forever

This is my kind of album! Sad indie boy makes good acoustic music. <3

Hermoso

I've never heard of this band, and they are great! Awesome Scottish rock. I would totally buy this album.

Perfect post Brit pop. Sappy and tuneful.

it comes as absolutely no surprise to me that the cadre of whiny dadrockers at the top of the reviews didn't like this one. sorry that music can occasionally just be simple and beautiful???? it's wild how so many stagnant, stuck-up rock fans consider this kind of music's existence a personal affront and get so upset that they start spluttering and stammering and spitting out the same weirdly homophobic arguments that have been levelled at any genre remotely soft or emotional, from emo to alt rock to electronica. i don't know how to tell you this, but sometimes men have nice voices and sing pretty songs. IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY!!!! that being said - is this worthy of 1001 albums? debatable. but did i personally like it a whole lot? yes ❤️ yes i did!

Very nice album! Almost every track is a hit! I never listen it before. As for, it is even better than Oasis.

Unexpectedly brilliant album.

Very nice album

Great listen

Fuck it, reallygood

Loved this!

Perfect slice of indie pop

Very Mello perfect for a quiet night in

I really enjoyed everything about this album!

9/10 crazy good, holy shit

Dit was echt een fijne verrassing. Ik had weer middelmatige Britse jaren 90 rock verwacht, maar dit was echt super goed. Beetje combi tussen Keane en een rustige Oasis ofzo. Ik twijfel tussen 4 en 5 sterren, en dan doen we vaak toch maar het voordeel van de twijfel.

It's odd that a number of people on here give this a crap score due it reminding them of a bad period in their lives at the turn of the century. It reveals their age. Well this reminds me of happy days so there. However listening objectively there are a number of fairly moody anthemic ballads that have a similar structure and were fairly popular at the time. They are well played and sung and are quite enjoyable despite the current trend to slag off anything from this era. It's good, easy listening.

I gave Kanye a 3 so I gotta give these guys a 5, and then reconsider my rating system later. No, really, Travis was good listening.

This is a brilliant album from start to finish. The first time I listened to it, it was immediately on my top list. Blue Flashing Lights is one of the best hidden tracks in the history of hidden tracks. The entire album is gold from start to finish.

Definitely belongs on any list of music that defined the 90s. Was everywhere. And it's exquisite on headphones. Very slick.