Published on Feb 21, 2006
The opening notes to this album had me cringing.
Piano ascendant, Pat Monahan’s Manhattan-sized, sincerity-dripping
vocals painting the ceiling, and all I can think is, oh God, it’s
gonna be thirteen rewrites of “When I Look To The Sky” and “Drops
Of Jupiter.” Which are great songs, by the way, but crammed inside
a musical pigeonhole is no way to go through life.
And then I listened, and listened some more, and
discovered just how wrong I was. A taste of the familiar, then on
to the new, that’s the essence of For Me, It’s You, an album
of musical growth and experimentation that has all the fire and
spirit you could ask for.
Growth is always one of the possibilities when you
lose two-fifths of a band’s original lineup in a year, as Train did
between starting 2003’s My Private Nation and finishing the
accompanying tour. (With the departure of original guitarist Rob
Hotchkiss and bassist Charlie Colin, the band is now made up of
Monahan, guitarist Jimmy Stafford and drummer Scott Underwood,
along with new guys Brandon Bush on keyboards and Johnny Colt on
bass.) The other possibility is retreat into the familiar.
There are nods to the past here, of course — these
guys have solid commercial instincts and know their way around a
steady-building ballad — but this album is no retreat. Rather,
what can be found on For Me It’s You is a fresh new
expansiveness that serves to underscore both the influence of new
guys Bush (John Mayer, Shawn Mullins) and Colt (Black Crowes), who
co-write much of the new material with Monahan, and the wisdom of
the band’s decision to stick with producer Brendan O’Brien, he of
the fat Phil Spector-ish sound and zillion exotic textural
instruments (hurdy-gurdy, anyone?).
The key, though, is the way the band itself stretches
out. In the big-boned “Am I Reaching You Now,” vaguely Eastern,
indubitably Harrison-esque opening chords build into pulsing verses
and soaring choruses that achieve a lift-off that is uniquely
Train. When they drop right into the Bob Mould nugget “If I Can’t
Change Your Mind” and you hear the glockenspiel backing up the
driving melody line, the deal is sealed. The arrangement is almost
a Springsteen pastiche in places, perhaps unsurprising given
producer O’Brien and band manager Jon Landau’s other principal
client. “All I Hear” follows with a barreling full-tilt intro
that’s similarly heartfelt, suggesting these occasionally-too-slick
radio Gods have finally tapped into their inner id and learned to
rock out. Yeah!
From there you move into the nightclub blues-rock
shuffle of “Shelter Me,” a kind of Beatles-Stones mind-meld.
Tom-toms and jazzy piano lurk between verses of the funked-up “I’m
Not Waiting In Line,” where Monahan’s delivery eventually achieves
a kind of hip-hop velocity and Stafford’s stabbing guitar solo
breaks in like the ghost of Keith Richards. The fact that the song
has a smartass, undercutting little “Meet Virginia”-style coda only
adds to its greasy 70s-rock appeal (if there’s one thing these guys
could use more of, it’s humor to break up the occasionally
overcooked earnestness of their music).
It’s tough to mistake the intentions of lead single
“Cab,” which layers on the strings a la “Jupiter,” but the core of
the song is a gently swinging piano-based number that feels more
Jayhawks/Hotel Lights than “Drops.” (Side note: the first time I
heard “Cab,” my reaction was rather lukewarm. Two days and zero
repeat listens later, I realized I couldn’t get the melody out of
my head. Damn!) The closing title track is a sweet capper to the
album, featuring raw, bluesy verses that would be at home on a
Black Crowes disc, building into a soaring chorus burnished with
layered harmonies, bells and horns. It’s a track that shoots for
majestic and makes it on the strength of a strong hook and
passionate execution.
Train has never gotten much respect from mainstream
critics — ironic, since their music is so mainstream in every way
other than its lack of irony. But it’s hard to call a group that’s
this willing to grow and this committed to its songs “pop” — their
music is bigger and smarter and more viscerally appealing than that
word could ever convey. For Me It’s You is an album that
breathes vibrant new life into a band that was standing at a
crossroads.