Tourist by Athlete

Tourist, Athlete's second album, arrived on Parlophone on 31 January 2005, and it was written on the run, while the Deptford band were still out promoting their debut, Vehicles & Animals. They cut it at Helioscentric Studios in East Sussex, at The Dairy in London and at their own place in the city, with Victor Van Vugt producing most of it, John Cornfield the rest, and the band credited throughout.

Where the debut had a style all its own, Tourist goes widescreen: soft rock with electronic shimmer around the edges, the kind of big-hearted swell that owes something to Coldplay, Doves and the Flaming Lips, with Joel Pott's earnest vocal and Tim Wanstall's keyboards at its center. "Wires" was the lead single and became their biggest hit, followed by "Half Light", the title track and "Twenty Four Hours". Critics argued over whether they'd lost their spark or simply grown up, but the public settled it: number one in the UK and platinum within a month.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.