AM Gold-Train Album Review:

 

Train is back with their ninth studio album “AM Gold”, their first in five years and their second without lead guitarist/founding member Jimmy Stafford as lead singer Pat Monahan is the only original member left. Monahan now collaborates on his writing with new guitarist Jerry Becker for the last two albums and new drummer Matt Musty. He also collaborated with other musicians like Jewel and Sofia Reyes for two songs on this album.

If you were looking for an easy listening or pop album where the songs would be singles back in the day on AM radio then you found the right album here, which means you have to look at it through that lens as Monahan is trying to recreate a 90’s pop or soft rock. The track title “AM Gold”, “Cleopatra”, “Turn up the radio”, “Singing alone”, “Amber light” all scream poppy songs as two of them are singles and two have guests on them, plus a few have a Latin flare to them. This contrasts with the song “Ain’t no easy way” which has a very distinct easy listening vibe to it.

The other tracks which stand out more are because of Monahan’s amazing singing voice which has been one of the best voices in rock N roll history and for his strong song writing ability/lyrics. These songs show off the emotions in his writing and vocals with “Running back” which has football references, “Bettin’ on me” a retrospective on his life, “Fake Flowers” which has clever lyrics too, “Easy on the eyes”, and “Its everything”, which is a great way to end the album as it has a nice quiet peaceful sound to it being acoustic about how she means everything to him.

This is another fine edition to their long discography but it is not their greatest album as it’s not even close to the album “Bulletproof Picasso” as that was a makeup for the album that proceeded it.  They are a rock band and you can hear some elements of rocking out with some guitar riffs or solos on some songs but its hiding. They have slowly started creeping away from being a rock band over the last few albums and are now getting to be a full-time pop band, not even a pop-rock band. It is hard job as a musician to keep making music especially when you’re working with new people and you’re the last member of the band left so we got to cut Monahan some slack because guess what? None of these songs are bad as most are super catchy like their previous albums but it is certainly not AM Gold either.