Music / Travis

Left to right: Neil Primrose, Andy Dunlop, Fran Healy and Dougie Payne

"Why does it always rain on me?
Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?
Why does it always rain on me?
Even when the sun is shinning I can't avoid the lightning"

— "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?"

Travis are a post-Britpop band from Glasgow, Scotland. Formed in 1990, the group consists of: Fran Healy (vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriting), Andy Dunlop (lead guitar), Dougie Payne (bass), and Neil Primrose (percussion).

Initially a Britpop group, the band enjoyed commercial success with their second album, The Man Who in 1999, topping the UK Albums chart and becoming one of the best selling albums in the UK. They would later continue their success in the 2000s and become one of the most critically acclaimed groups in the country.

The band is widely regarded as the setting stone for the post-Britpop scene and paved the way for bands like Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Keane to achieve commercial success.

Discography

• Good Feeling (1997)
• The Man Who (1999)
• The Invisible Band (2001)
• 12 Memories (2003)
• Singles (2004)
• The Boy with No Name (2007)
• Ode to J. Smith (2008)
• Where You Stand (2013)
• Everything at Once (2016)
• 10 Songs (2020)
• L.A. Times (2024)

This band contains examples of:

• British Rockstar: Averted. According to the music press, they're seen as being Nice Guys.
• Darker and Edgier: 12 Memories compared to their other albums, since it deals with The War on Terror, politics and domestic abuse.
• Food Fight: The video for "Sing" has one occurring at a fancy lunch. Notably re-enacted on Top of the Pops.
• Long-Runner Line-up: While there were lineup changes within their early years, the current one has been stable since 1996.
• Lyrics/Video Mismatch: "Flowers in the Window", which is a sweet love ditty about the singer comparing the woman they love to the beautiful flowers around them, is set to a music video that features the band wandering into a village populated exclusively by heavily pregnant women and then finding the sole man in the entire village chained up like an animal in a cage and screaming for help, prompting them to flee for their lives. It does become slightly more relevant if you're familiar with the term "flowers in the window" being a euphemism for "pregnant", in which case the song becomes a celebration of the singer's love for their pregnant wife.
• New Sound Album: The Man Who is a more melancholic-sounding album than the more outright Britpop Good Feeling.
  • 12 Memories and Ode to J. Smith are Darker and Edgier than their other works, the former introducing more distorted guitars while the latter is a more indie rock-sounding album.
• Nice Guy: The whole band, to the effect that they and their music are sometimes considered "boring".
• Precision F-Strike: "Peace the Fuck Out"
• Protest Song: "Peace the Fuck Out" and "The Beautiful Occupation" from 12 Memories are anti-war songs about The War on Terror.
• Silly Love Songs: "Flowers in the Window"
• Trope Codifier: Of the "post-Britpop" genre.

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