Day 0884 - The Man Who

Travis "The Man Who"

Listening to this album kind of confirms for me what I've always thought about Travis.   That some of their songs are good, but overall I'm probably never going to be a rabid fan or buy their albums.

Travis had released their slightly rockier debut "Good Feeling" to reasonable sales but not blistering success.  After a tour with Oasis, the band got together with Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich... I hate to say it, but you can tell.   The track "As You Are" has a Bends-esque quiet-to-loud guitar build-up, and singer Fran Healy's high voice hits some rasps over the big distorted chorus that instantly brings Thom Yorke to mind.

For the most part, the album is ballad-heavy.   there are a lot of acoustic and clean guitars with Healy's voice going for a more gentle tone.   It seems to be a similar Radiohead-lite vein mined by Coldplay a year or two later.   Melodic and inoffensive but not really earth-moving.   

The single "Why Does it Always Rain on Me" helped to launch the album commercially, and it ended up selling a ridiculous number of copies and making the band (at least briefly) one of the biggest around.

The album features (as was the style at the time) a hidden track at the end of the CD after a long stretch of silence.   It's quite foul mouthed and makes a nice departure from the overly tasteful, and radio-friendly fare of the album.

Day 0772 - Copper Blue

Sugar "Copper Blue" (1992)

After Hüsker Dü called it a day, frontman Bob Mould released a couple of acoustic-y solo albums that didn't fare too well.   His record company released him from his contract and he set about writing the music for what would become Sugar. 

Mould returns to his favoured style of distorted guitars with melodic vocals.  I'll be honest, his stuff doesn't do much for me.   It's generally listenable enough, and I can hear his influence on a few bands I know and like, but these songs really just passed me by without leaving much of an impression.  Same with much of the Hüsker Dü I've heard.

In interviews and press, Sugar were plagued by Nirvana questions and comparisons and whether the band was doing well thanks to the grunge scene.  All this despite Mould's former band having been a probable influence on many of the grunge bands, so that can't have been easy for Mould.

Day 0255 - Will the Circle be Unbroken

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band "Will the Circle be Unbroken" (1972)

This is a phenomenal album for any fan of country, country-rock and bluegrass... but a 38 song double album with a running time of near enough to two hours is a bit much.  Even if this was a live concert setlist, it would be getting into Bruce Springsteen or Pearl Jam territory!

The band put their spin on a number of country standards. The album has a relaxed atmosphere with a range of guest stars and a lot of studio dialogue in between tracks.

For me the rambling lengthiness of the album lets it down somewhat, especially with some tracks being fairly similar sounding little banjo jams.  It's one of those cases where a decent double album could have been whittled down to a stellar single album.  However, if you want a one-stop country album that you're able to listen to in increments, this is pretty damned good (and I imagine that true country aficionados would happily listen through the whole thing in one sitting, as I would for my few favoured double albums.)