It’s a curious thing, Travis’ album number one. Like most people who own it, I bought it after ‘The Man Who’ had conquered the world, to see whether their debut had been similar. In some ways, it is. In others…‘Good Feeling’ seems very much an album of two halves. The first half is very much the sound of a band flexing their muscles for the first time. ‘All I Want To Do Is Rock’, the opening track, is an exceptionally simple song, but shot through with a winning charm that somehow makes you overlook this. ‘U16 Girls’ is an extra-ordinary track about the dangers of relationships with underage girls. It’s almost impossible to imagine such a song being released today – was it really so different in 1997? The rest of the first half, from ‘The Line Is Fine’ to ‘Midsummer Night’s Dreaming’ is a continued collection of straightforward guitar indie.
In the second half, however, Travis as they would come to be begin to take shape. ‘Tied To The 90’s’, despite it’s lack of chorus, is the best-constructed track on the album up to that point, and ‘Happy’, whilst almost making a virtue of it’s simplicity, is infuriatingly catchy and loveable. It’s the last three tracks, however, that pave the way for Travis’ future career. ‘More Than Us’ in particular is delicate, tuneful and lovely.
After ‘The Man Who’ and ‘The Invisible Band’, there was a substantial amount of retrospective glory accorded to this album, a feeling amongst the worthy music press that Travis had abandoned their roots of greatness for a life in the middle of the road. Frankly, this is nonsense. There’s plenty to like about this album, but it’s ultimately a rough template, a first attempt at something they would go on to do much better.
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