album The Man Who (Driftwood and Why Does It Always Rain On Me?), but look past that and, well, what are they selling? A slightly morose take on the world with sub-par lyrics.

Travis don't have much to say. It's only when they stop trying to be Radiohead and hit the acoustic guitar for a good, shiny-happy-people-styled singalong that they come into their own. There will always be a market for upbeat, unchallenging pop and, when they try, they do it well. Luckily they seem to have finally realised this (the success they have achieved post-Driftwood probably means they have bigger mortgages). So we find a band in summer-anthem, foot-tapping mode. Opening track and new single Sing delivers it in spades and is a catchy enough number. So too are Side (though with some dodgy lyrics about a neighbour's new car), Follow The Light and the brilliant Beatles pastiche Flowers In The Window, which would do Crowded House proud.

What lets the album down, though, is the downbeat, yearning 'life must be better than this' dross. Dear Diary, The Cage and Safe are just plain tedious. Worse still, on Pipe Dreams Fran Healy sings, 'I'd pray to God if there was heaven, but heaven seems so very far from here'. You can almost hear Thom Yorke laughing in disgust. Been there, done that.

Regardless, it should sell in droves and is bound to win numerous album-of-the-year awards. And good on them, they're on to a good thing and we'll all be tapping along with them through those long summer nights.