Fifth Planet Out4 Out Of 5 Stars
For their second album, Train broadened their sound out to a more contemporary sound, losing the alternative leanings of their debut and adding rock that was more reminiscent of Counting Crows than the rootsier vein of the debut. The tightening up paid of in a big way, when "Drops Of Jupiter" and its title song went top ten and the album sold almost three million copies in 2001. This comes in on two levels; Pat Monahan is an effective pop songwriter, and the eclectic mix of instruments (a mandolin here, a vibraphone there) helped the songs stand out when mixed with the usual radio fare. It's one of many elements that made the stately single almost omnipresent when it hit the top 40 and started getting massively played.
But Train is more then just power ballads and guitar strumming. They've got a knack for poppier rock hooks (helped along by producer Brendan O'Brien, whose credits range from Pearl Jam to The Black Crowes, whose work does get some echoes here), the kind that turn into ear-worms with ease. This is not to confuse Train with a true rock band, when they try to actually rock (on "Respect"), it's not entirely convincing. The other unfortunate thing is the band is kind of faceless. Did you know Train has multiple top ten albums? Probably not. But the good thing is that, even with an album as even and decent sounding as "Drops Of Jupiter" is, Train got better as the albums progressed, even managing a comeback when many pundits had written them of. "Drops of Jupiter" is a good starting point if you want to find out how Train managed to be both massively popular and yet under the radar at the same time.
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