I sauntered over to HMV and found myself at a listening booth breezing through Travis' new "The Invisible Band". There was a promotional poster above the listening booth which referred to the albums' "unique instrumentation and genius production", which caused me to have a good laugh (to myself) coupled with a sudden urge to run home and listen to MBV's "Loveless", which is the first name in albums that actually deserve such an accolade. I'm assuming that since the above phrase was followed by "(Nigel Godrich of Radiohead and Beck fame)" then one was meant to follow a misguided reasoning along the lines of $Radiohead, Beck = musical gods = genius production$. That still wouldn't excuse the claim that two guitars, bass and drums is any more unique than the latest release from the Popstars TV show in your favourite country. Which reminds me, I saw a promo which referred to the new release by Canada's Sugar Jones as "R&B flavoured pop stylings", or perhaps it was "pop flavoured R&B stylings" but in fact it really doesn't make a damn difference what it said because if you even have to ASK or mull for ONE SINGLE SECOND over what it's going to sound like, then please do emerge from the cave that you've been in since grunge died its painful death and turn on "(Today's) (Pop) Hit (s)(z) (__) FM" (it doesn't matter which one, because they're all the same) and listen semi-intently for about 30 minutes, and it doesn't matter what time of day you tune in, because it'll all sound the same no matter what. Jesus! British rock is turning into manufactured pop -- it all sounds the same! No surprises!

Now I like Travis, "The Man Who" is a fine piece of mellow guitar pop songcraft. Same goes for "The Invisible Band", but not quite as catchy as its predecessor (hey, that's pretty much what EVERY review has said, which I guess is what happens when your new record isn't inventive and sounds just like your last record -- everyone's heard it all before, and everyone hears it in the same way). But you or me or anyone who can be shown how to push a button on a mixing desk could have produced "The Invisible Band". You just have to fiddle with the controls until the instruments sound identical to "The Man Who" and you're done. There are NO creative decisions to be made, no wondering if the guitars should sound more trebly, or distorted, or more like a trumpet, just a simple sonic photocopy (auralcopy?) of "The Man Who". Sort of like when a band walks into a studio and their name is "(one or more monosyllabic words) (a number)" -- all you need to do is get your hands on Green Day's "Dookie", and PRESTO, merely twiddle the knobs until you hear the same thing, no decisions necessary, no mess, no fuss.