We’re very deep into this series, but it’s nice that, even at this point, there will still be some entries that come from out of nowhere or will maybe only show up once before never appearing again. Case in point, Travis. Don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the band’s name on here once. Never had a reason to. But then here comes ‘Turn’. I’ll get it to it in a second. Thinking about Travis, they were definitely a band that was around when I was growing up in the early, early 2000s. I more remember the time when ‘Sing’ was the band’s new single, with its video showing on The Box, and when they went on Top of the Pops and took the food fight from the video onto the stage. And that would have been in 2001. By then, the band were already a household name in the UK anyway. ‘Why Does It Always Rain on Me?’ Need I say more. That had established itself as the band’s signature song, and it was on their second album, The Man Who, released in 1999. Which brings us back round to the subject of today’s post.

‘Turn’ is on The Man Who too, and like ‘Why Does It Always…’ was released as a single from that album – the final one as the new millennium was slowly coming over the horizon. I didn’t know the song existed until years and years later. Which one exactly, I wish I could recall, but I must have been in the teenage range. I do remember just watching TV, think it was the Q music channel, and the video for ‘Turn’ came on. It’s an interesting one. In it, a bet is made by the bandmembers for frontman Fran Healy to do pushups for the whole day. The story doesn’t have anything to do with what the song’s about. But seeing those closeups of Healy straining with each push, his arms violently shaking while he lip-syncs “I want to live, I will survive” even made me want to pat him on the back and tell him he could do it. All goes down to good acting. He wins the bet, and just has he does his last push-up, a stranger is confronted and assaulted by a group of men. Healy has no strength left to get up of the floor and help the stranger. That’s where the video ends, and I was left with the classic “That can’t be where it finishes!” feeling. To the presumable teenager I was, it was a captivating watch, and the song sounded very nice too.

But what is ‘Turn’ about? Essentially, it’s Fran Healy’s statement of intent. He bluntly states what he wants to do in his life, and hopefully he can do it in a world that learns to turn. I’m thinking that means a world where everyone’s able to just get along with one another, but that’s not a very catchy or emphatic way of capturing the notion in song. Although it was released in 1999, the song had been around as early as 1993. Take into account that Healy would have been 19-20 years of age that year, the song is very much one from the point of view of a young man who has his dreams and the future way ahead of him. ‘Turn’ is the list of what Healy wants to happen. The best part of the whole song? Healy’s vocal. The intensity increases from verse to pre-chorus to those big, big choruses, and those climaxes are so hard to sing. He does let bass guitarist Dougie Payne take lead vocal on the second verse whenever they do it live. But on the studio take, it’s all Healy. I don’t know how he does it. So much power and passion behind the delivery, really tugs at the heartstrings.