Record Rack

*** Travis, “The Man Who,” Epic/Independiente. “What’s a wonderwall anyway?” sings Travis’ Fran Healy in this album’s opening song, needling his elders Oasis and implicitly proposing his band as a newer, clearer Brit-pop alternative.

They’ve certainly gone for it back in Brit-pop land. “The Man Who,” just out in the U.S. but released last May in the U.K., has sold millions there and was named best album of the year by several music journals. It recently won the Brit Award for best British album, and the Scottish quartet was decreed best British band.

Which suggests that nothing feels so good as feeling bad. “The Man Who” is a monumental mope of seductive beauty, a lush and richly melodic outpouring of resignation from a band that sees “a tunnel at the end of all these lights” and always expects blue skies to turn gray.

With its acoustic, folk-rock foundations and shimmering electric adornments, it sounds like something Radiohead would do if they were from Topanga instead of Oxford--artful rustics in a line running from Neil Young to Grant Lee Buffalo.

It gets to be too much of the same, and the album could use more of the slow-building intensity of “Turn” and the caustic energy of a the raw, lively hidden track. Travis opens for Oasis on Sunday at the Universal Amphitheatre, and it’s good to see them on the road. Maybe some sunshine will broaden their range.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.