{"id":39654,"date":"2006-02-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/for-me-its-you\/"},"modified":"2006-02-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-21T00:00:00","slug":"for-me-its-you","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/for-me-its-you\/","title":{"rendered":"For Me, It’s You"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The opening notes to this album had me cringing.
\nPiano ascendant, Pat Monahan’s Manhattan-sized, sincerity-dripping
\nvocals painting the ceiling, and all I can think is, oh God, it’s
\ngonna be thirteen rewrites of “When I Look To The Sky” and “Drops
\nOf Jupiter.” Which are great songs, by the way, but crammed inside
\na musical pigeonhole is no way to go through life.<\/p>\n

And then I listened, and listened some more, and
\ndiscovered just how wrong I was. A taste of the familiar, then on
\nto the new, that’s the essence of For Me, It’s You<\/i>, an album
\nof musical growth and experimentation that has all the fire and
\nspirit you could ask for.<\/p>\n

Growth is always one of the possibilities when you
\nlose two-fifths of a band’s original lineup in a year, as Train did
\nbetween starting 2003’s My Private Nation<\/i> and finishing the
\naccompanying tour. (With the departure of original guitarist Rob
\nHotchkiss and bassist Charlie Colin, the band is now made up of
\nMonahan, guitarist Jimmy Stafford and drummer Scott Underwood,
\nalong with new guys Brandon Bush on keyboards and Johnny Colt on
\nbass.) The other possibility is retreat into the familiar.<\/p>\n

There are nods to the past here, of course — these
\nguys have solid commercial instincts and know their way around a
\nsteady-building ballad — but this album is no retreat. Rather,
\nwhat can be found on For Me It’s You<\/i> is a fresh new
\nexpansiveness that serves to underscore both the influence of new
\nguys Bush (John Mayer, Shawn Mullins) and Colt (Black Crowes), who
\nco-write much of the new material with Monahan, and the wisdom of
\nthe band’s decision to stick with producer Brendan O’Brien, he of
\nthe fat Phil Spector-ish sound and zillion exotic textural
\ninstruments (hurdy-gurdy, anyone?).<\/p>\n

The key, though, is the way the band itself stretches
\nout. In the big-boned “Am I Reaching You Now,” vaguely Eastern,
\nindubitably Harrison-esque opening chords build into pulsing verses
\nand soaring choruses that achieve a lift-off that is uniquely
\nTrain. When they drop right into the Bob Mould nugget “If I Can’t
\nChange Your Mind” and you hear the glockenspiel backing up the
\ndriving melody line, the deal is sealed. The arrangement is almost
\na Springsteen pastiche in places, perhaps unsurprising given
\nproducer O’Brien and band manager Jon Landau’s other principal
\nclient. “All I Hear” follows with a barreling full-tilt intro
\nthat’s similarly heartfelt, suggesting these occasionally-too-slick
\nradio Gods have finally tapped into their inner id and learned to
\nrock out. Yeah!<\/p>\n

From there you move into the nightclub blues-rock
\nshuffle of “Shelter Me,” a kind of Beatles-Stones mind-meld.
\nTom-toms and jazzy piano lurk between verses of the funked-up “I’m
\nNot Waiting In Line,” where Monahan’s delivery eventually achieves
\na kind of hip-hop velocity and Stafford’s stabbing guitar solo
\nbreaks in like the ghost of Keith Richards. The fact that the song
\nhas a smartass, undercutting little “Meet Virginia”-style coda only
\nadds to its greasy 70s-rock appeal (if there’s one thing these guys
\ncould use more of, it’s humor to break up the occasionally
\novercooked earnestness of their music).<\/p>\n

It’s tough to mistake the intentions of lead single
\n“Cab,” which layers on the strings a la “Jupiter,” but the core of
\nthe song is a gently swinging piano-based number that feels more
\nJayhawks\/Hotel Lights than “Drops.” (Side note: the first time I
\nheard “Cab,” my reaction was rather lukewarm. Two days and zero
\nrepeat listens later, I realized I couldn’t get the melody out of
\nmy head. Damn!) The closing title track is a sweet capper to the
\nalbum, featuring raw, bluesy verses that would be at home on a
\nBlack Crowes disc, building into a soaring chorus burnished with
\nlayered harmonies, bells and horns. It’s a track that shoots for
\nmajestic and makes it on the strength of a strong hook and
\npassionate execution.<\/p>\n

Train has never gotten much respect from mainstream
\ncritics — ironic, since their music is so mainstream in every way
\nother than its lack of irony. But it’s hard to call a group that’s
\nthis willing to grow and this committed to its songs “pop” — their
\nmusic is bigger and smarter and more viscerally appealing than that
\nword could ever convey. For Me It’s You<\/i> is an album that
\nbreathes vibrant new life into a band that was standing at a
\ncrossroads.<\/p>\n

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