It’d been awhile since I hit the Travis Web site, so I was a bit surprised to see the band is putting the wraps on a new album, this after releasing its first album in almost four years in 2007 (The Boy With No Name).

This new track, J. Smith (the album is called Ode to J. Smith), has Travis fans in a tizzy, describing it as everything from “Queen-ish” to “so rockier!”.

Singer Fran Healy and bassist Dougie Payne have been blogging about the recording/mixing. Emery Dobyns (Mobius Band, Battles) is the producer.

Healy requested the song, which debuted on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic on May 1, not be upped to YouTube so as to avoid mass compression. I assume the copy I found from the Travis message boards is a rip from the KCRW broadcast.

• Travis | J. Smith

Elsewhere in the land of Travis, Healy discusses Sing and Driftwood on the Sky Arts series Songbook.

Lastly, the band is offering on its MySpace a muzak version of Closer, which was featured in the video. “Would make quite a cheesy ringtone.”

RELATED:
Travis: New Amsterdam (video).
Favorite albums of 2007 (The Boy With No Name was No. 10).
Travis, Marquee Theatre, 11/25/07.
Travis: Selfish Jean (video).
Travis: My Eyes (video).
Travis: Closer (video).

(I like Travis; so sue me.)