Fran Healy, best known as lead singer and songwriter of the Scottish band Travis, is coming to Rome on Wednesday, February 23rd at Circolo degli Artisti. He'll be playing songs from "Wreckorder", his first solo release, at Circolo Degli Artisti. Irshad Khan gives the album a spin ahead of the concert.

The first word to cross my mind when I finished listening to Wreckorder was “Beautiful”. The more I heard, the more I liked it. No filler, and lots of quality: yes, I am biased before even going to the concert, and I make no apology for it. If you’re familiar with Healy’s previous work with Travis, you’ll know that he’s best appreciated from about the third or fifth casual listening, when the album’s fabric starts getting worn in all the right places and the subtleties begin to show through the arrangements.

I’m no expert when it comes to dealing with lyrics like those of “Fly in the ointment”, which is why I decided to give Wreckorder free rein inside my head for a few days – a decision admittedly facilitated by its unobtrusive flow, which found just the right spot in the background where to sit and hum away to its heart’s content – so that by the time I see him live I’ll know it well enough to just enjoy the live rendition, instead of having my attention stolen by something I could have picked up on a previous listening. As I said, happily this is no chore.

Overall, I may not be sure about which tracks are the strongest yet, but out of ten, there are five that immediately called for me to hit the back button and play them again the moment they were over. An album that presents half of its tracks with such immediate appeal without compromising on workmanship is a rare album indeed, an album whose tracks are able to compete for the listener’s favour to such an extent that he is left undecided as to which one he needs to hear again first is rarer still.

It's nice to have an artist live up to your expectations. It's even nicer to have him exceed them.

Fran Healy plays next Wednesday, February 23rd, at the Circolo Degli Artisti in Rome, and I’m looking forward to it.

Irshad Khan