Additional personnel includes: Sarah Wilson (cello).

Engineers include: Gerard Navarro.

Personnel: Sara Wilson (cello).

Audio Mixer: Nigel Godrich.

Recording information: Rak Studios (09/1998).

After their successful debut album of murky pop, Travis seemingly felt a need to tinker with the formula. The product of this change is The Man Who, a quiet album filled to the brim with atmospheric and introspective ballads. Acoustic guitars and tranquil melodies rule here, as this release is an entirely different affair than the band's revved-up debut. Fortunately for Travis, this disc became a massive U.K. hit, spawning no less than five hugely successful singles. The album highlight is "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?," a sweeping singalong that took England by storm and became one of the biggest hits of 1999. However, despite the public's warm embrace of this album, fans of the "old" Travis may be disappointed. Gone are the arena-ready stompers and the dirty, grimy singalong pop that comprised Good Feeling. Instead, what is left is merely adequate; The Man Who offers pleasant background music, but no truly gripping moments. It's lite rock for late-'90s Britain that's, unfortunately, easily forgettable. [The U.S. release of this album, which came almost a year after its initial release, contains three bonus tracks.] ~ Jason Damas

After their successful debut album of murky pop, Travis seemingly felt a need to tinker with the formula. The product of this change is The Man Who, a quiet album filled to the brim with atmospheric and introspective ballads. Acoustic guitars and tranquil melodies rule here, as this release is an entirely different affair than the band's revved-up debut. Fortunately for Travis, this disc became a massive U.K. hit, spawning no less than five hugely successful singles. The album highlight is "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?," a sweeping singalong that took England by storm and became one of the biggest hits of 1999. ~ Jason Damas

THE MAN WHO was an astonishingly successful and critically praised follow-up to Travis's inconspicuous 1997 debut, GOOD FEELING. Amidst the upbeat but uninspired post-Britpop guitar scene, the Glaswegian four-piece refined the tender moments from the group's first album to produce a work of unexpected subtlety and confidence. The stunning first single and opening track "Writing to Reach You" sets the mood. The song evokes the fragility and lyrical ache of Radiohead's "High and Dry" and name-checks Oasis's "Wonderwall."

From the claustrophobic "The Fear" to the mocking self-pity of "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" to the somnolent "As You Are" and the mellow resignation of "Driftwood," Fran Healy and company wrest a range of emotions from the simplest of acoustic arrangements. Only the solitary stray into bombast of "Turn" disappoints, but it still serves to demonstrate how far the group has progressed.