Fran Healey - Wreckorder

When Scottish band Travis ended their world tour last year, frontman and chief songwriter Fran Healy decided to chart a solo excursion. "There comes a point where it naturally will occur to the main creative person in a band, 'Hey, I would like to try and work with maybe another musician," says Healy. "I want to try and do a duet with them or I want to do my own thing,' so for me it was just a very logical step." That step -- and temporary side-step from his mates -- has resulted in Wreckorder, Healy's eagerly anticipated solo debut arriving October 5 via Ryko.

Recorded in three disparate environs -- Berlin, New York and Vermont -- and produced by Emery Dobyns (Noah and the Whale), Wreckorder carries Healy's literate pop songcraft lightly even if he describes the project, like Travis' output, as just "a collection of (my) songs". Preview track "Buttercups" epitomizes Healy's skilled touch, a deft, lushly folk/pop song that adorns a rich melody with the perfect hint of minor chord tension and the touching lyrical bent of a relationship on the rocks (she obviously didn't take to humble gift of flowers). In a fitting nod to British pop/rock royalty, Sir Paul McCartney was invited to lend bass lines to the waltzing "As It Comes" while an inspired duet pairing with Neko Case arrives in the form of the gentle charmer "Sing Me To Sleep."

Artist Site

Fran Healy - "Buttercups" (from the album Wreckorder)