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Good Feeling
10/07/1997 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Epstein
When the subject of Britpop comes up, people tend to namecheck the usual influences (Beatles, Kinks, Small Faces, Paul Weller) yet never seem to mention Slade. This is, frankly, a travesty; there's more Slade than Beatles in the collected works of Oasis, and the same goes for Travis. The Scottish quartet's best songs ("U16 Girls," "Tied To The '90s," "All I Want To Do Is Rock") are all fueled by the same sort of football-chant aesthetic that made Slade famous. Travis frontman Fran Healy can't match Noddy Holder node-for-note, unfortunately, which underlines Good Feeling's biggest drawback--the songs are generally good, the band generally rocking, and the production (courtesy of Steve Lillywhite) generally unobtrusive, but Healy's vocals are simply too bland for anyone's good. Noddy could chew a phrase with all the vigor of a sideshow barker, but this cat's delivery is cribbed strictly from MTV-approved vocalists like Bono and the late Michael Hutchence. Feh.
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