Train

Train surfaced as the post-grunge period waned, fusing earthy mainstream rock with time-tested classic rock ingredients, a sound crystallized in the breakout single “Drops of Jupiter.” Pulled from the 2001 album that bore the same name, the worldwide hit launched the band’s career, yet Train reached superstar level in 2009 once the breezy, six-times platinum “Hey, Soul Sister” cemented the group as adult contemporary headliners. During the 2010s the outfit kept scoring at home and overseas, rolling out a run of Top Ten AC singles such as “Drive By,” “Angel in Blue Jeans,” and “Play That Song,” while occasionally stepping aside for projects like the bright holiday set Christmas in Tahoe and a note-for-note rendering of Led Zeppelin II. Even after those detours, Train’s core stayed rooted in mainstream pop, an orientation quietly signaled by the retro title and feel of their sparkling 2022 album AM Gold.

After his Led Zeppelin cover band disbanded, vocalist Pat Monahan departed Erie, Pennsylvania, late in 1993. He moved to California, where he met Rob Hotchkiss, one-time frontman of the Los Angeles band the Apostles. The pair started as a duo performing at local coffeehouses before adding ex-Apostles guitarist Jimmy Stafford to form a trio. Bassist Charlie Colin and drummer Scott Underwood soon joined, locking Train’s roster into place by 1994.

Over the next several years the band built a loyal following around San Francisco while touring nationally as support for Barenaked Ladies and Counting Crows, eventually scraping together funds to cut a record. Though interest from labels was slow at first, Columbia Records noticed Train and placed the group on its Aware subsidiary, which put out the self-financed debut Train in 1998. “Meet Virginia” cracked the Top 40 the following year, but real momentum arrived in 2001 when Drops of Jupiter turned multi-platinum on the strength of its title track. The single lingered in the Top 40 for nearly forty weeks and the album moved more than three million copies.

My Private Nation appeared in 2003 and earned platinum certification, powered chiefly by the hit “Calling All Angels.” Although no additional Top 40 singles emerged, three tracks performed strongly on adult contemporary radio, indicating that Train had shifted toward an older audience and away from alternative roots. For Me, It’s You arrived in 2006 yet posted the lowest sales figures of the band’s career to that point. Monahan therefore stepped away briefly, issuing a solo album in 2007 and touring in its wake. He rejoined the others soon after, and Train delivered their fifth studio set, Save Me, San Francisco, in 2009. The release revived their fortunes when “Hey, Soul Sister” climbed to number three on the Billboard Hot 100. Two years later the band issued its sixth studio album, California 37, which entered the Billboard chart at number four and featured the AC hit “Drive By.”

Despite those achievements, the members sensed they still lacked mainstream “cool.” Monahan voiced a desire to make a record that would be broadly commercial yet emotionally resonant. With that aim in mind they began writing and tracking new material, though founding drummer Scott Underwood exited amicably ahead of sessions and was replaced by Drew Shoals. Train completed its seventh studio album, Bulletproof Picasso, in 2014 and released it that September. The set was previewed by the polished, country-flavored single “Angel in Blue Jeans” and debuted at number five on the Billboard 200.

One year later the group offered the holiday collection Christmas in Tahoe. The next summer they recorded a full cover of Led Zeppelin’s second album under the title Does Led Zeppelin II, which reached number 71 on Billboard. In September 2016 Train unveiled “Play That Song,” the opening single from their tenth album. Shortly afterward lead guitarist Jimmy Stafford announced his amicable departure. He did not appear on a girl a bottle a boat, which surfaced in January 2017 and entered the Billboard 200 at number eight, marking the band’s sixth Top Ten album. The following year brought the collaborative singles “Philly Forget Me Not” with Daryl Hall & John Oates and “Call Me Sir” with Cam and Travie McCoy. The lighthearted “Mai Tais” featuring Skylar Grey arrived in 2019, followed in 2020 by the standalone track “Rescue Dog.”

A twentieth-anniversary edition of Drops of Jupiter surfaced in 2021, as did Christmas in Tahoe, the Hallmark holiday movie drawn from the Train album and featuring Pat Monahan along with a new song called “Mittens.” The band resumed activity in 2022 with AM Gold, an album steeped in the disco and yacht-rock sounds of the 1970s. The singles “Running Back (Trying to Talk to You),” “AM Gold,” and the Jewel duet “Turn Up the Radio” preceded the May release.