Train - California 37

Album: California 37
Artist: Train
Release: April 13, 2012

I was going to talk about California 37 for New Music Monday but I've been very busy being unemployed and I just didn't get around to it.  Turns out not working is a lot of work!  Regardless, let's just christen today New Music Wednesday and get on with it, shall we?  This album was released less than a month ago and I've only just had it a couple weeks so I'm still digesting it.  Given that, this is basically my first impression and I'm keeping my option to change my mind entirely in the future open.

Vocally, I think this record is better than Save Me, San Francisco.  Pat's voice is just settled in a better place here.  However, lyrically and even stylistically, I'm not sure I exactly follow where they were coming from. The whole thing starts with a catchy song called "This'll Be My Year".  I like this song, I do.  But (you knew that was coming, right?) I have to take issue with a lyric.  In one of the verses, he says "'92...Freddie dies but Queen is still..."  Okay, look, Freddie Mercury didn't die in 1992, he died in November, 1991.  My husband argues that he means that Queen carried on in 1992, but it isn't worded that way and it bugs the piss out of me.  I understand that this is nit picky and weird, but I can't help it.  It jumped out at me like a sore thumb the very first time I ever heard this song.

Next is "Drive By" which I'm sure you've heard by now.  It's a peppy little pop song, very catchy, but not anything earth shattering.  Apart from being quite cliche saying that he basically hit the road the morning after because he was "overwhelmed and frankly scared as hell", I like it.  Next is "Feels Good At First" about the how wonderful love is in the beginning of a relationship.  I really like the sound of this song, it's a good one to sing along to.  After that one though, they lose me for a few songs.

The next one, "50 Ways to Say Goodbye" is inexplicably Latin themed.  I guess I just don't understand why they went with a Latin feel on this song.  The lyrics and the feeling of the song don't really have anything to do with each other.  My problem really is that I really like this song, but at the same time I feel like I don't get it.  After that are "You Can Finally Meet My Mom" and "Sing Together" - two songs about death, neither of which inspire me to listen to them (the first one makes me cry, the second one is just meh).  After that is "Mermaid".  I think "Mermaid" is going to grow on me, it just hasn't yet.

The second half of the record works better for me than the first half.  I love "California 37", it was instantly my favorite song on the record.  I do have one issue with it though. (surprise, surprise, huh?)  Let me preface this by saying that, for all intents and purposes, I don't have an ex-anything floating around out there. No ex-husband, no baby daddy, no ex-boyfriend that amounts to anything, so I don't have the first clue what it's like to deal with a person in that role.  That being said, I question the wisdom of referring to the mother of your children as "the bitch" in a song.  I'm just not sure I'm down with that.  Otherwise, great song. 

The last three, "We Were Made For This", "When the Fog Rolls In", and "To Be Loved" chronicle three different stages of relationships.  The first, of course, is a perfect love affair.  The second is the dissolution of a relationship. The third is the forgiveness and friendship that could theoretically happen after a breakup.  I really like all three of them.  Pat's voice is suited to them perfectly, the music is spot on and the lyrics are natural and comfortable.  Overall, I like this record better than the last one (as it should be); I liked the second half right away and the first half is steadily growing on me.

Train - Train

Album: Train
Artist: Train
Release: 1998

I've rambled on about some of my new favorites for a while now, so let's get back to one of my old favorites.  Train's debut album, the self-titled Train, was released in 1998.  I didn't come to own it until it was already several years old, so I can't claim to have been a Trainiac from the very beginning (surely you know by now that I'm always a few years behind).  In fact, I'm not even sure which Train album I had first, it might have been My Private Nation, but I really don't remember.  It just seems like I've always been listening to them, kind of like Matchbox Twenty. 

Anyway, Train is my 2nd favorite of their albums (my favorite favorite is My Private Nation...I think) but, as is pretty standard for me, it's not because of the radio hits.  They released 3 singles from this record: "Meet Virginia", "I Am" and "Free".  If I never hear "Meet Virginia" again I'll be alright with that - it has been run into the ground ad nauseum over the last 14 years.  I mean, it's a good song and all, but enough is enough.  The other 2 are good songs too, but both are far from being my favorites on Train.

The gems here are to be found in the deep cuts.  The songs on the second half of this record are really where the beauty comes in.  They're all long songs (I was surprised to find that the majority of them are over 4 minutes) but this only proves my point that they really can be longer if they're just that good.  All of the songs on Train are the carefully crafted, heartfelt songs we've come to expect from Train, but the second half is something more.  The songs are more bluesy and gritty than anything we've heard from them since.  It sounds like the result of Pat and Jimmy and the guys hanging out on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans for a weekend and then writing some songs.

If you think you know Train from the radio-friendly hits that you hear everywhere - on the radio, in commercials, on TV - think again.  This is a whole different side to them, a side I wish they had developed further.  We get a glimpse of it again toward the end of Drops of Jupiter, but that's about it.  So forget about "Meet Virginia" and "Drops of Jupiter" and "Hey, Soul Sister" and dig a little deeper into their catalogue to find the stuff that will really get in your heart and become a part of you.  These seldom heard of songs on Train are where the magic is really happening.

Evil Sampling - Gone Right!

I hate sampling.  For years, there hasn't been a good song out there that contained any amount of sampling.  If you want to cover a song, cover the damn thing, don't butcher it.  Don't pick it apart and turn it into something it was never supposed to be. 

Unless, evidently, you're Train.  Apparently if you're Train, you can pick apart a classic, a song I love, and rearrange it and put it back together Frankenstein-style and still not make me hate you.  In fact, I might even like it a little bit, in spite of myself.  (or, in spite of "my elf" as I typed it 4 times before getting the s in there).

You see, on their latest album "Save Me, San Francisco", which we all know I'm not in love with, they sampled/covered a great song.  When I first heard the intro to this song, I actually paused it.  I was so scared of how bad it was going to suck and how mad it was going to make me that I had to take a minute to forgive Train their trespasses.  However...check it:

It doesn't suck at all!  Sure, it's no Doobie Brothers, but Pat sings the hell out of it.  In fact, I like what they've done with 'Black Water' better than I like the original parts of the song.  Go figure.

Train - "Save Me, San Francisco"

Album: Save Me, San Francisco
Artist: Train
Release: October 27, 2009

I would like to preface this post by saying that I love Train.  I love them.  I've seen them twice in concert, I loved Pat Monahan's solo album, I loved their live album.  What I'm saying is, I'm a fan. 

But, and this is a big but, I'm not in love with this album.  In fact, there are parts of it I don't even like. Still, one of my favorite Train songs ever is on "Save Me, San Francisco", so I have to at least rate it as "like it". 

"Save Me, San Francisco" was released almost four years after "For Me, It's You" which has been called a commercial failure.  Personally, I thought it was a much better record, but what do I know?  Apparently they considered breaking up after that one, and Pat did a solo record, but they got back together (thank goodness!) which I thought was a wonderful thing.  Then they released this record.  Bah.

The first single, 'Hey, Soul Sister' does sound like classic Train, I'll give it that.  But the radio stations around here ran that thing into the ground so badly that by the time we saw them perform it live, my sister and I actually looked at each other and rolled our eyes.  We're that sick of it.  It's not a bad song, but it is not one I want to hear over and over and over. 

The next single was, 'If It's Love".  Ugh.  My least favorite Train song ever.  It is hugely popular and goes over great when they perform it live.  But I just don't get that. This one feels to me like they were just phoning it in big time.  I have come to expect so much more from them, lyrically, over the years.  I mean, "Can't be a bee without a bee throne"?  Are you fucking kidding me?  The same guys who brought us lines like "What am I gonna do without you?  What am I gonna do about you?" ('Your Every Color' - "My Private Nation") expect me to take lyrics like "We can travel to Spain where the rain falls mainly on the plain, sounds insane cause it is, we can laugh, we can sing, have 10 kids and give them everything" that fit awkwardly in the music and just be cool with it??  Frankly, I'm kind of insulted.

But, not to be a total downer, this record also contains 'Parachute', which is a really great love song.  And also 'Half Moon Bay' which is one of my favorite Train songs ever.  It is very sweet and upbeat and just fun to listen to and sing along with.  Lines like "This ain't a threat but I think I better warn ya, you're gonna fall in love if you go to California" are clever and well constructed.  It's a good song. 

Overall, if you're not familiar with Train (shame on you!!) don't start here.  I just think they're better than this.  I would recommend starting with "My Private Nation", it is a great record, then go back to "Train" and "Drops of Jupiter" to see where they came from.  Then once you appreciate them at their best, you can give this one a listen and enjoy the high points, and overlook the "meh" points.  Myself, I can forgive them this one because I love them and they have done enough incredible music that I know it is just a fluke.

Let me start with the most recent live show I've been to - the Matt Nathanson, Train, Maroon 5 show at the Kentucky State Fair August 28th. 

Ok, some background.  My sister and I drug our husbands to the Train show at the Louisville Palace Theater in 2006. It was wonderful.  Even the men were into it and we were all blown away by Pat's voice and his ability to completely own the shit out of that place.  Then, we took the men folk to see Augustana, Maroon 5 and Counting Crows at Riverbend a couple years later.  Another awesome show.  Adam Levine totally stole the show from Adam Duritz (who I love) and showed him how it was done. 

SO, when we heard, way back in February, I think, that Train and Maroon 5 were going to be on the same stage...IN LOUISVILLE...there was no freaking way we weren't going.  So we got our tickets in March - floor, 20 rows back. 

The night before, we found out that Pat had blown a register in his singing voice and had postponed the show in Erie, PA.  Because Train never cancels a show and that's his hometown, we feared for our little Kentucky State Fair.  Of course, we wanted him to take care of his voice because we want new Train albums for many years to come and he seems like such a nice guy you never want to see him suffer, but we were also DYING for this show.  Luckily, the show went on.

When we finally found how who would be opening for them (about a month ago) I am deeply ashamed to say that I had never heard of him.  Who is this Matt Nathanson guy?  So I googled him and found out that I should know him, but I have been so wrapped up in stuff I already loved that I hadn't listened to the radio in literally years, so it was tough for me to hear new and different things.  I raced to iTunes and grabbed Faster & Modern Love.  I wore them out over the next week or so, so I decided to go ahead and download the entire album. My eardrums were in heaven!!  This guy could not only put together some beautiful lyrics, he could straight sing the shit out of them too (but the review of that album is to come, so I'll stop there).

After a month of OD-ing on Modern Love and Some Mad Hope (which I also snagged asap), I was pumped to see what this guy could do live.  He opened with Mercy (one of my faves) and the drum was doing that beating in your chest thing that makes your heart go along with it and I was in love.  Love at first note, you could say.  Then he sings and, oh sweet mother, he sounds like...no,no, he sounds better than the recording!!  The only other time I've witnessed that is when Pat Monahan sings.  So not only does Mr. Nathanson have a beautiful voice the he seems to have total control over, but he is also very personable on stage.  They flat blew the roof off that place, and even though only a handful of us seemed to be of the knowing-all-the-words devotee variety, he got an enthusiastic standing-O.  I was transported.  I had read somewhere (his blog, probably) that he was embracing the sexualty of things and he is not kidding.  I wish it had been an over 21 show so we could have gotten a more uninhibited view of his personality, but somehow he even made scrabble sound sexy.  :-)

Then comes Train.  We feared for our beloved Pat's voice, but he did not disappoint.  His speaking voice was scratchy and when he sang you tell he was working hard, giving it all he had and sure, maybe you could tell that it wasn't exactly like he'd want.  But his voice is such a beautiful instrument that it was still an absolute pleasure to hear.  His showmanship did not disappoint either and, once again, this itty bitty dude became a huge presence on stage and wrapped us all in his energy.  He came around through the crowd while singing "Merry Me" and TOUCHED MY HAND!!!!!  (ok, fan girl moment over)  (but it was pretty cool).  Jimmy was looking great, as always, and played his ass off for us.  It was a great set - it was dancing and singing along and sweating and being overcome by every sweet, warm, fuzzy emotion that Train music brings on.

Then comes Maroon 5.  Ok, we all know that Adam is attractive (what can I say, the night was full of hotties) and believe me, when he is on stage, he knows it too.  They ran through their songs like they had somewhere to be (of course, they did - Florida, the next day).  But I had to drive 2 hours home, then get up at 6am and I wasn't in a hurry for them to get off stage.  I don't really recall him even talking to the crowd until they came out to do their encore.  At that point he had a lot of personality and was very friendly but it was almost too little too late for me.  They sounded good, rocked the house, all that, but I could have used a little more of him acting like he cares about the crowd and the fact that we're there supporting his band.  Don't get me wrong though, I'm still a major M5 fan and I will sing (off-key) at the top of my lungs and seat-dance in my car to their music for as long as they keep making it...and then some.

Overall, it was an amazing show.  The amount of talent that crossed that stage is staggering.  Train and M5 did enough old stuff to please those of us who have been fans since the first record and Matt Nathanson played a set that far outshined any "opener" status he might have had.  I hope to get down to Nashville to see him headline at the Cannery Ballroom in November (a small venue...standing room only...awesome!!).  I would highly recommend going to see any of these guys if they come within driving distance.  They are true artists and amazing showmen and you will not be disappointed.