CD REVIEW: TRAIN - SAVE ME SAN FRANCISCO

Monday, 03 May 2010 10:58 |

Written by Raymond Coonen |

BAND: TRAIN
ALBUM: SAVE ME SAN FRANSICO
LABEL: COLOMBIA / SONY MUSIC
RELEASE DATE: 27-OCT-2009 (USA), 24-APR-2010 (Europe) RATING 85/100
GENRE: POP, ROCK
PRODUCER: MARTIN TEREFE
WEBSITE: http://www.trainline.com
REVIEWER: RAYMOND "EVERYBODY LOVES RAY" COONEN

"Save Me San Francisco" is the title of the comeback album of the band called Train. Train has had his five minutes of fame back in 2001 with the modern classic rock ballad "Drops Of Jupiter". A song that when I heard it for the first time I immediately knew that radio stations will play it over and over again till it comes out of your ears. And yes... they did. But I also thought that if a band can write a song like that they probably wrote more stuff like that. So I bought the album that was same titled as the hitsingle without listening to it… a big mistake!! When I heard it the first time I had to search for two or three tracks that I liked. So then I added Train to the long list of one hit wonders.

The name Train only pops up in my CD collection on the "Knight's Tale" soundtrack with an amusing song called "Ramble On". Still Train released 2 other studio albums before the band came back with this release "Save Me San Francisco".

So now nine years after the massive single success of "Drops of Jupiter" is history going to repeat itselves? The first single "Hey, Soul Sister" is doing very, very well in the charts and Train found their way back to the top of the bill. "Hey, Soul Sister" is written by another one hit wonder Espen Lind ("When Susannah Cries"). The writing skills of Espen Lind are also showed on the track "Brick By Brick" that was also co-written with Amund Bjorklund and Pat Monahan. This song reminds me a little bit of the band Vertical Horizon. A comparison that I also make to the tracks "Parachute" and "Already Know". These are easy listening rock songs.
The real Train sound is to hear back on the opening and also title track "Save Me, San Francisco", "I Got You" and "Words". Funny but these tracks are for me, except for "Save Me, San Francisco", the weakest tracks on the album. If you listen to the album a couple of times a song like "This Ain’t Goodbye" will grow on you and becomes better every time you hear it. "This Ain’t Goodbye" is followed up by the also fantastic and funny written "If It's Love".
The album ends with the poppy "Breakfast In Bed" and the acoustic "Marry Me". A beautiful little song sounding like the Kansas classic "Dust In The Wind".

The band's fifth studio album "Save Me San Francisco" is produced by Martin Terefe who has already worked with KT Tunstall, Jason Mraz and James Morrison. Thanks to him has Train made the expectations I had since "Drops Of Jupiter" finally true… It took them nine years but so what. If you love pop music with a rocky edge you must catch this Train record. You won’t be disappointed, trust me!

TRACKLISTING:
01. Save Me, San Francisco
02. Hey, Soul Sister*
03. I Got You
04. Parachute*
05. This Ain't Goodbye*
06. If It's Love*
07. You Already Know*
08. Words
09. Brick By Brick*
10. Breakfast In Bed
11. Marry Me*

* Everybody Loves Ray’s favourite tracks

LINE UP:
Pat Hotchkiss: vocals
Jimmy Stafford: guitars
Scott Underwood: drums

Comments (0)

Only registered users can write comments!

CD REVIEW: TRAIN - SAVE ME SAN FRANCISCO

Share this post