Known as the nice guys of pop, for the past decade Travis built a comfortable niche for themselves as purveyors of soft Brit-pop.

Not as laddish as Oasis, or as experimental as Radiohead, they nonetheless are one of Britain's best-selling bands and are credited with paving the way for the likes of Coldplay and Keane. With Ode to J Smith, Travis singer/songwriter Fran Healy says they want to dispel the 'nice' and be known as rockier and edgier.

Chinese Blues takes you straight in, a rocking piano slice of pop that you can imagine being sung back to them word-for-word from the terraces. The track from which the title comes, J Smith, is an odd match of electric guitar and pounding drums with a calm choral interlude, while single Something Anything is as innocuous and as unremarkable as an early Oasis track.

The Glasgow foursome recorded this, their sixth studio album, in two weeks and while there's a pace to it, more consideration would have suggested there are some songs that should never have been included.

Friends with Shadows-style guitar and syrupy lyrics is a case in point, as is Broken Mirror which never seems to go anywhere and, unusually, displays Healy's voice as lifeless.

They do close with the undoubtedly catchy Song to Self, as well as the anthemic Before You Were Young, which begins a piano ballad before Celtic sweeps and crashing cymbals take over.

Travis are known as the godfathers of pop, but if they want to stave off retirement they need to write tracks relevant for future generations.