Travis L.A. Times LP (Freemantle's Green Marble Vinyl)

Glasgow's multiple BRIT and Ivor Novello-winning songwriting giants Travis return with 2024's L.A. Times, their tenth studio album. An incredible achievement that arrives 25 years since the band released their breakthrough #1 album The Man Who, L.A. Times marks the beginning of a bold new era for the band.

"L.A. Times is our most personal album since The Man Who," says Fran Healy. "There was a lot of big stuff to write about back then, the tectonic plates had shifted in my life. I was 22 when I was writing those songs. They were my therapy. Over 20 years later and the plates have shifted again. There's a lot to talk about."

The album's lead single "Gaslight" is Travis' first new music since 2020. Bolstered by horns, handclaps and a symphonic sunburst of gang vocals shot through the chorus, "Gaslight" serves an instant reminder of how, when Fran Healy (vocals, guitar); Andy Dunlop (guitar); Dougie Payne (bass) and Neil Primrose (drums) convene to make music, the resulting sound is impossible to mistake for any other band.

Produced by Tony Hoffer (Air, Beck, Phoenix), L.A. Times was written by Healy in his studio on the edge of Skid Row, Los Angeles, the city he has called home for the last decade. Its ten songs see their creator, inevitably, trying to make sense of the road travelled to this point — a sentiment reflected in the stunning album cover photograph. Echoing some of Travis' most beloved records — The Man Who, The Invisible Band and The Boy With No Name — we're greeted anew by four distant figures amongst vast surroundings, this time beneath the concrete and glitter of downtown Los Angeles at night. An unbroken line-up since their formation at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1990s, the coordinates of their extraordinary journey together are marked by this latest in a series of arresting images by world-renowned photographer and Travis collaborator for over 20 years, Stefan Ruiz.