Eggplant (Train) (LP 4710 - 4719)

Train  Train (CD, Columbia Records, 1998) ****  

Train  Drops of Jupiter (CD, Columbia Records, 2001) *** 

Train  My Private Nation (CD, Columbia Records, 2003) *****  

Train  Alive at Last (CD, Columbia Records, 2004) ***  

Train  For Me, It's You (CD, Columbia Records, 2006) ***  

Train  Save Me, San Francisco (CD, Columbia Records, 2009) ****  

Train  California 37 (CD, Columbia Records, 2012) ***

Train  Bulletproof Picasso (CD, Columbia Records, 2012) ***

Train  A Girl, a Bottle, a Boat (CD, Columbia Records, 2017) ***

Train  AM Gold (CD, Columbia Records, 2022) ***

Genre: Pop rock, indie rock, pop, folk rock

Places I remember: HMV, Real Groovy Records, Fives, Fopp, JB Hi Fi

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: When I Look to the Sky (My Private Nation), Hey Soul Sister (Save Me, San Francisco)

Gear costume: Counting Airplanes (My private Nation), Drops of Jupiter, Save Me, San Francisco, Drive By (California 37)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8

Active compensatory factors: Train emerged, pretty much fully formed, in the late nineties. Their debut is nicely understated. It manages to convey a lovely hybrid of alt country, alt rock (Meet Virginia), guitar-driven pop and light classic rock moves (everything else). The band at this stage comprised Pat Monahan – lead vocals, Jimmy Stafford – lead guitar, mandolin, Rob Hotchkiss – rhythm guitar, harmonica, Charlie Colin – bass, and Scott Underwood – drums. Pat's lead vocals are impressive from the off!

Second album, Drops of Jupiter, amps up the indie rock sound and forgoes any alt country progression, largely thanks to Brendan O'Brien's meaty production. Highlights for me - the title track and the brooding Mississippi which closes the album.

It was actually their third album, My Private Nation, that alerted me to the joys of Train. It was from there that I back tracked to the first two albums and then bought each successive release. I'm a sucker for their brand of fun, bright shiny, hooky pop music.

My Private Nation is a clear peak in their catalogue, with each song bringing something special and different to the party.

In a strong album, definitely their finest album to this point, the highlights are many: Calling All Angels; All American Girl; Save The Day; Counting Airplanes; and my favourite - the emotional When I Look to the Sky.

Alive at Last was the live album that capitalised on this peak moment. It includes a heap of great tunes with a small audience who get fully involved from first track (Calling Angels) to the encore of the Faces' Stay With Me. It's raucous fun throughout! There's even two new songs tagged on to the end. Great value for money!

The next studio album, For Me, It's You, came three years after My Private Nation. The band was still a five piece but only Stafford, Monahan and Underwood remained from the first album.

Although it wasn't as commercially as successful as other albums there are still some great Train songs on their fourth album - namely Cab and Give Myself To You. The rest is good too but without the killer tunes of My Private Nation. In some ways it feels a little like they are running out of inspiration and that something needed to change (this was Brendan O'Brien's last album as producer). 

Another three years would go by before their fifth album, Save Me, San Francisco. It introduced some key changes in producer, personnel and style. During those three years the band went on hiatus as the guys pursued some solo projects. After the hiatus, Train returned as a trio (Monahan, Stafford and Underwood).

The pause worked, as Save Me, San Francisco is a dramatic and impressive return to chart success and artistic success (which is the more important but leads to the former). Five big singles came from the album, including Hey Soul Sister, If It's Love and Marry Me. 

The album kicks off with the brilliant title track which acts as a purpose statement (I love San Francisco and riding on the 101 along the coast), then comes Hey Soul Sister, a song I never tire of hearing. From there it's a buoyant set of pop smart Train moves that add up to a vibrant return for the trio.

It was the trio's last outing on the next album, California 37, as it was drummer Scott Underwood's last album. It again kicks off with two great Train songs - This'll Be My Year and Drive By (this album's Hey Soul Sister moment). The rest is the sunshiney pop Train do so well.

Bulletproof Picasso (who knows what that means) was next, their seventh studio album in the Train production line. It did start feeling a bit like that by this point. Albums were coming and going - most had a few hits and some good songs but nothing was really approaching the glory of Save Me, San Francisco.

Bulletproof Picasso was another okay album but without the big hits of the previous ones. By now the Train formula is pretty well established - Monahan's vocals and over-egged lyrics which people either love or hate (I mostly love them), the big classic pop hooks (again - I love them), the big guitars of Jimmy Stafford, and the infectious pop songs.

Even though Underwood was gone (replaced by Drew Shoels), the band had grown on the back cover to include six members. That included two back up singers, but still - a radical change from the trio years.

A Girl, a Bottle, a Boat was next five years later. That's quite a gap. Jimmy Stafford was gone, so that just left Pat Monahan as the last original member of Train. Even with all those personnel changes, it still sounds unmistakenly like Train.

AllMusic sums the album up well as 'an exuberant album, a celebration of everything that makes Train such a corny band. The hooks are big, the production is so glossy that it shines, and it's so cheerful it's bound to irritate anybody who isn't on the band's wavelength. If you're with them, though, a girl a bottle a boat is a good time because of its eagerness to please'.

AM Gold is the last album on my list. It has such a crappy cover that it's kind of endearing. Same with the music - big bold classic Train. The album displays all of their strengths, even if it's basically a Monahan solo album.

Where do they all belong? There are a few Train albums that are still on my list: Christmas in Tahoe (2015), Train Does Led Zeppelin II (2016) and it looks like they've also recorded a new album for release this year called Mad Dog in the Fog.