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Aug 24, 2020 By Samantha Small Travis

Leave it to Twitter to form an unlikely, but fantastic pairing like that of Travis’ Fran Healy and The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs. Hoffs admired Healy’s voice, some dm’s ensued, and soon the two birthed “The Only Thing.” You can stream it now, and even check out the Healy-directed video down below. “The Only Thing” is the latest single from Travis’ eagerly anticipated new album, 10 Songs, which will be released on October 9 on BMG.

Originally written by Healy as a could-be duet, Hoff remembers the moment the stars seemed to align. “One day, he asked me to sing with him, and without hesitation, I burst out ‘Yes!’” Hoff says in a press release. “He showed up at my doorstep with his recording gear and we recorded my vocals in the living room. Collaborating with Fran and the band has been a pure pleasure.”

Dressed in monochrome jumpsuits, the band, along with Hoff, perform the pseudo-lullaby in Glasgow’s Theatre Royal. Against a light, acoustic groove, harmonies back Healy and Hoff’s admissions of a blind love. “When I held you it was the only thing/Only thing/And all I knew was you were everything/Everything,” they sing while looking into each other’s eyes. But later on they rethink, with the final line asking the stinging question: “So why am I blue?”

Although the video looks pretty simple to film, it was actually quite the opposite. “This is definitely my Covideo,” Healy said in a press release. “One of the main prerequisites was to somehow get us all on the same stage and try to capture the spontaneity of a duet while the performers are in different locations. Leading up to the shoot, I would send Susanna a video of a great duet. ‘Summer Wine,’ ‘I Got You Babe,’ ‘Islands in the Stream.’ I hired a small film crew and persuaded Glasgow’s Theatre Royal to open its doors to us. I directed the shoot remotely, via three phones. One in the DP’s ear, one FaceTime trained on the monitor, and one iPhone with the band. There were so many moving parts. I’m amazed we got there and it turned out great.”

10 Songs is the band’s first in almost four years, the follow-up to 2016’s Everything At Once. Previously, the band has shared “Valentine” (which was one of our Songs of the Week) along with, “A Ghost” (which was also one of our Songs of the Week).

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