Video: Travis – “The Only Thing” (ft. Susanna Hoffs)

Directed by Fran Healy. From 10 Songs, due October 9 on BMG.

I bet you didn’t even realize how much you missed the sound of Fran Healy’s voice. Back in 2001, which--insanely enough--is almost twenty years ago, Johnny Loftus dubbed Travis the kings of “Nice Rock” and welcomed them and their fellow nice rockers Coldplay as an antidote to the Nu Metal clowns hogging the rock and roll airspace. Seems quaint now to even imagine rock and roll having any airspace to hog, but that’s a different story. Or is it?

At a time when the only guitars you’re going to find on the Hot 100 belong to Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, both of whom are perfectly fine and pleasant to listen to, maybe we’re overdue for a Nice Rock revival. Sure, it’s a long shot but wouldn’t it be…well, nice?

And maybe the chances of a breakthrough will be improved with addition of a voice that inspires even warmer feelings of nostalgia: that of tiniest Bangle, Susanna Hoffs, who has inspired everyone from Price to Matthew Sweet.

Aw, who am I foolin’? “The Only Thing” will pick up some plays on SiriusXM’s dadrock haven, The Spectrum (Ch. 28), or maybe Jenny Eliscu will find a place for it once or twice on XMU (Ch. 35). But the days are gone when the mainstream is going to embrace a pretty duet featuring pedal steel and clever lines like this:

You are the record in the record shop
Nobody wants to buy
You are the metaphor, the metaphor
The meta for the other guy.

That’s okay. So it goes. The niche of folks who care about music like this can stayed tuned to Glorious Noise and we’ll keep uncovering gems like this for you.

Travis: web, twitter, bandcamp, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

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