Track Listing

1. Writing to Reach You
2. Fear
3. As You Are
4. Driftwood
5. Last Laugh of the Laughter
6. Turn
7. Why Does It Always Rain on Me?
8. Luv
9. She's So Strange
10. Slide Show

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20995 in Music
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2000-04-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com's Best of 2000
With The Man Who, Scottish quartet Travis captured the very essence of their homeland, and unassumingly blew us away. The moderately paced, longing melodies, and lead singer Fran Healy's quietly desperate vocals, provide a haunting mask on what is actually a rugged, enduring, and entirely beautiful slice of Brit-rock. --Beth Massa

Amazon.com
As much as one would like to resist the temptation, it is impossible to avoid drawing comparisons between Travis's latest and Radiohead. The Man Who is a great album that stands strong on its own merits and a simple comparison threatens to cheapen it. However, since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, this release should make Radiohead feel damn good about themselves. The Glaswegian group summons the same tortured spirits, but what's absent is the insipid Orwellian undertones that make Radiohead's OK Computer so disturbing and difficult. Travis's singer, Fran Healy, strains and soars in a Thom Yorke fashion, minus the maniacal, slightly salivated exasperation. And musically, there are some nearly uplifting moments. The wonderful, circular rhythms and lilting vocals in "Driftwood" are as celebratory as a James song and the sitar-tinged "The Last Laugh of the Laughter" is so sweetly sad, its beauty overrides its sentiment. "Why Does It Always Rain on Me" builds on the swelling momentum of great classic pop (and, as a matter of fact, shuffles along the same downbeat as "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head "--an inadvertent irony that should suit the band just fine). The Man Who is a highly recommended break from the Brit-rock pack. --Beth Massa

Customer Reviews

A revelation
A bought this album with no previous knowledge of Travis, but primarily after hearing of the success that it enjoyed in Britain, both critically and commercially. Thank God for hunches. Fran Healy's voice is simply angelic, occupying a nearly identical octave range as Thom York from Radiohead, minus York's always-present sense of panic. I would be hard-pressed not to pay top-billing to see them live with Oasis, and one has to wonder who may be opening for whom in the future. I would think that they are winking at both the listener and Oasis themselves by beginning "Writing to Reach You," with the same chord progression as "Wonderwall," but that is where the similarities cease between the two groups, and Travis sets out to achieve one of the most hypnotically beautiful and melodically stunning albums to come out of Britain, or any other country for that matter in many, many years. No real need for me to recommend it to everyone, because anyone who truly appreciates great music will have this album soon enough. Travis have truly opened up their own niche in the Brit-pop lexicon, combining professional musicianship and Fran Healy's devastating vocals and equally beautiful and heartfelt lyrics. Bliss. Enjoy.

Simply Amazing...
I've been waiting for this album for a full year, holding off on buying it from the UK and paying through the nose. However, after hearing this latest from Travis, I'm kicking myself that I didn't do it earlier. Simply amazing is the only thing I can say. Every song, and I mean every single one, is a classic. I can see where the comparisons to Radiohead come from, but it's a different feeling entirely. Where as the melencholy associated with Radiohead is heavily depressing, what The Man Who does, is make you think of all the little moments in your life that in retrospect were the big moments. Like that girl you let get away, or wondering what if... Sad and dreamy but with a tinge of the kind of hope that everyone needs to keep going in their daily life. Grin and bear it... Standouts include Writing to Reach You, Driftwood, The Last Laugh of Laughter (which almost sounds like a lullaby) and She's so Strange, which is the perfect winsome, what if? song. Slide Show is a perfect ending to the proper tracks. The extra tracks are almost as good, but a little rough around the edges. Amazing work from these guys. Their last one, 1997's Good Feeling was great, but this is heads and shoulders above anything anyone had a right to expect. I doubt this one will ever be far from my cd player for the rest of my days. Haunting, beautiful, melodic, and dreamlike. Buy it, you will never regret it.

Carried me through college...
and now it carries me back. I'm pretty sure I made it through a year of school because of this album. The Man Who explores a wide variety of emotional themes. "Writing To Reach You" and "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" are the standout tracks, but the whole thing is really a lyrical and instrumental tour de force. Buy this album so you, too, can listen to it compulsively for months, then remember those months of your life every time you return the CD to the player. Radiohead refuses to get this emotional, and Coldplay will do it, but usually arena-style. Both of those bands make good albums for other times, but you can play this in a quiet room and calmly soak it up. And who doesn't need an album like that?