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Steel Train - Steel Train - 2010 (Buy it)
Arcade Fire has the number one record in the United States this week. Sure, that doesn't mean the same thing it did 30 years ago when it was Thriller. Or 20 years ago when we were talking about Nirvana. Or even 10 years ago when it was all about...um...*NSync.
It's still pretty extraordinary. Knocking off a label driven powerhouse like Eminem is no mean feat. It was done by a band that has really no business being (gasp) popular. What it means for the record business I won't get in to here. You know the drill, the labels will try to emulate the Indie phenomenon of a band that never catered to anyone else's tastes and did it all by developing a fan base and embracing things like good musicianship, the internet, etc. I can't wait to see how UMG tries to manufacture that.
Actually, I can wait.
But, while I'm waiting I want to bask in that success not because I like The Arcade Fire. i don't, in fact. I don't get it. I think "Keep The Car Running" is less a nod to Springsteen as I keep reading and more a retread of John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown band who, themselves WERE ripping off Bruce. I just wanted to applaud the Arcade Fire and allow that independent spirit to segue to a band whose record I can't stop spinning: Steel Train.
The road that took me to this band is actually interesting (to me, natch!)
I love the band, fun. I was turned on to them because of a blog called PopDose. I had done some spec writing for them when they were the estimable JefitoBlog a few years back. I got some heat for my Guides to Queen and Adam Ant. It was great and it got my reviewing rocks off a little bit. Jeff and his crew reviewed this band called 'fun' and I took a chance. For the better part of last year "Aim & Ignite", the debut record has been on heavy rotation in my house. My three year old daughter can sing the chorus to their song, "All the Pretty Girls" and you've been hearing "Walking the Dog" in Expedia commercials the last few months.
My wife, knowing how much I loved that record and also that in our new house we would have room to highlight our turntable, dust off the old lps and fill the house with pops and cackles, bought me the album on Vinyl. A gorgeous gatefold edition, three sides, heavy plastic. The record came with a CD as well, as if I needed one. But still. It is fantastic.
As a dedicated music lover, it's never enough to just bask in a band's one record, if you really love them you need to go back into their past and dredge, find the hidden nuggets, you know? The lead singer, Nate Reuss, came from an Arizona band called The Format. A power pop group that I would say is a cross between Jimmy Eat World and Queen. Their album Dog Problems is superb.
Nate left The Format and helped form fun.
And I started following them on Facebook and Twitter. It was on Twitter that one of the members of fun was going on and on about how great Steel Train's record was. Little did I know that the leader of Steel Train is 1/3 of fun. But, I figured, eff it, I love fun.'s record. And if THEY can't stop talking about this new record I'm gonna try it.
Now, I have a new philosophy when it comes to buying music. If a band puts their record out on the standard issue CD or iTunes, i'm really not all that interested in paying full price. I won't steal it. But I will either wait for it to be offered as an iTunes deal for $4 or I'll get a music industry friend to give it to me.
But. If a band goes that extra mile. Puts out the record on vinyl AND includes a digital download I will happily pay double the going iTunes rate for that experience.
That's what I did with the new Albums from The Gaslight Anthem, Against Me!, The Hold Steady and the forthcoming Jukebox the Ghost's Everything Under the Sun. Grace Potter and her friends at Disney can suck it with the 1 day only $3.99 download through Amazon. And, even at that price I've barely given the record a cursory listen. Why bother? It's ephemera. It's just files. The music is secondary to how much music you have. How big the collection on your device and how easy it is to access. Blah to digital downloads.
Steel Train has a lot of options. But I just needed one. The LP, which came with the requisite digital version AND a (highly mediocre but intriguing) reworking of the entire record with all female artists such as Nellie McKay, Amanda Palmer, Scarlett Johannsen, Tegan and Sara, etc. The bonus record is called Terrible Thrills Vol. 1. The label for Steel Train is Terrible Thrills.
But there's nothing terrible about this record (see what I did there?).
There are lots of flavors on Steel Train. Big, anthemic sounds, soaring choruses, production and arrangements that tip their hats to the best of lush 80s sound but with an immediacy and confidence that is ginormous helpings of ear candy.
I know, reviewers are supposed to traffic in simile. (It's Midnight Oil meets T. Rex on a Coldplay soundscape!...sometimes it kind of is though....) But I don't think that's fair.
Steel Train is an album by a band that loves McCartney as much as they do Lennon. It's as powerful a record as I've heard in a while, frantic at times, pulsating with urgency challenging you not to join in. As in the opening track "Bullet" which calls to mind Big Country (in a good way) and REQUIRES the listener to point to the last row in a stadium of fist pumpers and shout "Like a bullet! A bullet! A bullet into the night!". Ot the schizo, Indie power rock of "Turnpike Ghost". Or the nod to early 00s electro pop bands like Ima Robot with the song, "Touch Me Bad".
The record never lets up. Even when it slows down on "Fall Asleep", a song that so blatantly rips Pachelbel's progression (no song since Blues Traveler's Hook has done so with such abandon) but it doesn't matter because it's so sweet that, by the time you get there, you're so in love with Jack Antonoff and his crew that you will find yourself starting the whole record all over again.
Steel Train. A
