Although Coldplay take center stage when it comes to gentle rock, Travis have always offered an earthier, folkier approach to warm rock lullabies. They can be bittersweet, on "Flowers in the Window," optimistic, such as on "Sing," or sorrowful, on "Why Does It Always Rain on Me." The earlier material is a little weak, but the latter makes up for it. Here you'll find tracks about love like "Side" and current politics like "The Beautiful Occupation." Travis are an underrated band with strong melodies and, by listening to this collection, a great catalogue.

I have been a huge Travis fan since their early days, and they have only gotten better with age. Four albums into their career, "Singles" takes stock of all of their singles that range from humble beginning tracks to arena-filling anthems. This works better as an introduction to those new to the band, and depending on your level of fanfare, the two new songs make it worth a purchase for the diehards.

The tracks are basically divisible by the albums. The tracks from "Good Feeling", their debut, are more Britpop infused, with standout tracks such as "U16 Girls", "All I Wanna Do Is Rock", and "More Than Us". The songs from "The Man Who" are definitely more polished, and it is easy to see why they hit is big with this album. There are few bands who can produce songs like "Driftwood", "Turn" and "Writing to Reach You" on the same record. The tracks from "The Invisible Band" take the sound to the next level, with more stadium-rocking tracks like "Sing", "Side" and the country-infused "Flowers in the Window" (perhaps my least favorite of the tracks). This is my favorite Travis album, as it is the most consistent. Next we have tracks from the fan favored but critically underrated "12 Memories", which is their weakest album, but one that packed more than a few great songs. Included here is the hit single "Re-Offender" (one of their best songs), "Love Will Come Through" and the politically-charged "The Beautiful Occupation". The highlights of each album are here, and it makes for a nice, comprehensive overview of their work so far.

Being a singles collection, there are loads of good songs that are not included here. Missing are some of my favorite Travis songs like "As You Are", "Last Train", "Happy to Hang Around", and "Peace the F*** Out". But this is to be expected, as there is a sharp difference between a "Best of" package and a "Singles" compilation. Many good songs are overlooked. But what I am happy about is the inclusion of "Coming Around", which was a one-off single released between "The Man Who" and "The Invisible Band". The new song, "Walking in the Sun", is a good tune in the typical Travis style, but I wouldn't buy this compilation on the strength of that song alone.

Overall, you can't go wrong with a Travis CD. They have had many great songs and I hope that they have many more to come. For someone new to the band, this is the best place to start. The fans probably have all the albums, so this compilation is not an essential purchase.

It was by accident that I came upon Travis' CDs in the record store. Similar to what most people would do, I thought that purchasing the band's greatest hits would be a better bargain than picking up individual album, as I was new to the band. Then I took the CD home and put it in the player. Right after the first listen, I knew I was hooked.

"Sing" is a perfect opener for the compilation (also for their album "The Invisible Band"). It kicks off rather oddly with some bizarre artificial sounds, then proceeding into a mid-tempo, melodious tune. Fran Healy's voice is pleasant to the ear, and the instrumentation is sleek, brisk, but not overproduced. The whole CD continues in the similar fashion, with highs and lows of vocal delivery and mild shift of tempo from song to song. The standouts for me are the aforementioned "Sing," the spry "Driftwood," the cute "Why Does It Always Rain on Me," the somewhat somber "Love Will Come Through," and the fan favorite "Turn."

Some reviewers complained that the songs are not placed in the chronological order. In my humble opinion, however, the misplacement makes the disc fun to listen to. Casual fans would not be under the impression of what each album sounds like by merely listening to several songs. Moreover, Travis' songs tend to have a "samey" feel which prevents any song from appearing incongruous.

Overall, this "Singles" compilation provides an incredible listening experience, like a breeze in the summer days, lovely, comforting, and engaging. As an introduction to the band, it certainly kindles my interest in seeking their other releases.

Before I got this collection, all I knew were the songs from "The Man Who". That drove me to get this, and now I'm very glad I did. Included here are the four great singles from "The Man Who", as well as every great one before or since. So besides killer tunes like "Writing To Reach You" and "Why Does It Always Rain On Me", I now also love most of the rest here. My new favorites would be the opener "Sing", maybe one of their happiest and catchiest singles ever. I also dig "Walking In The Sun", "Tied To The 90's", "Side", and "All I Wanna Do Is Rock". With each listen my fave songs tend to change though. My only complaints are....why limit themselves to just the singles for a collection, and like all comps, why not chronological order? Still, most of the good stuff is here, and anybody with a taste for good alt-rock or brit-pop who gets this, should end up quite "Happy".

I don't know a lot about Travis before purchasing this, but had heard "Why Does it Always Rain on Me" and liked it. Turns out that it not the only one I enjoyed, was pleasantly surprized by the entire cd. Very Very Good!