On the flip (yeah, I know CDs don't have flipsides...so?) is "Hazy Shades Of Gold", a perfect title to describe the stoned, lazy rock on offer here; like Rod Stewart and Bobby Gillespie taking one of those 'trips' you read about...the fact that it starts off like Abba's "Does Your Mother Know" is also a point in its favour. Two songs in, and we've already covered more ground than most bands take 3 LPs to achieve. Next up is "Good Time Girls", a slower, slinkier number that sees the singer coming over like Shaun Ryder and extolling the virtues of free-spirited females, the kind of girls you see "drinking expensive wine". A lazy, debauched summer track, it manages to recapture the feeling of similar songs from the 70s, but without being so patronising or naive. Last up is a demo of "Good Feeling", a slow acoustic come-down number, that is equally impressive.

Certainly on record, Travis sound as though they're living the rock and roll myth to the max and are certainly producing some killer sounds, even if they're really four clean-cut public schoolboys...

Rating: 10/10

Read another review of "U16 Girls" by Greg O'Keeffe...

Onto the b's..."Sometimes I Make You Sad" is a throwaway scuzzy fairground stomp. "Sometimes We're Very Sad" is the band larking about trying to do the same song a capella style - and failing miserably. A self-admitted filler, it would probably have been better left off. On the other single is "Nothing More's Gonna Get In My Way", a mellow hippyish rocker - could be straight out the early 70s. The last of the extra tracks on offer as part of this release is "20ft Halo", a funky Sgt Pepper-ish psychedelic track that is probably the best of the b-sides.

Rating: 9/10

The other tracks are all different 'parts' of the same track (too different to be remixes), some better than others. All retain the sonic sci-fi of the main track however, and would probably feature in the soundtrack of Bladerunner if someone ever made a special edition of it (and yes, Decker is a replicant).

Rating: 8/10