T i a l ha lTuesday, April17, 2012 - 7A The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com ALBUM REVIEW Hopping aboard the fee -ood Train With 'California 37' , MUSIC COLUMN Goodbye, but 'Call Me' the pop-rock group stays on track By GREGORY HICKS Daily Arts Writer Train is a failure - a failure at disappointing. Though the band hasn't changed its style very much, the years have been kind to the group's likability. Save Train Me, San Fran- cisco put Train California 37 back on the radar after its Columbia three-year pro- duction hiatus and California 37 proves that the previous album's success wasn't just a stroke of luck,but aresultofthe band's skill to generate consistently catchy material. Perhaps this comes from the merger of two undying quali- ties: humor and love. Lyrics from tracks such as "You Can Finally Meet My Mom" have an air of self-aware stupidity that can be described as nothing less than cute - forming an image that's induced fainting from Pat Mona- han fans since 1998. "(He'll) just lie down and close (his) eyes and think about stuff," sung with a slight pause, as though he's put- ting deep thought into the choice of the word "stuff." One can't help but giggle. This album also wins the award for most name-drops on a single record - or even a single song. The opening track on the album, "This'll Be My Year," con- sists entirely of a timeline filled COLUMBIA Looking for ourselves out here. by brand-name inventions and. movie, music, and locational allu- sions. "In '85 ... Nintendo comes, Live Aid too,'Back to the Future,' where were you?" Many songs tell a story, but Train is willing to go so far as to include actual dates to narrate the given events. Lyrically speaking, the record's lead single "Drive By" is one of the weaker tracks on the album, but not nearly weak enough to be criticized. This Billboard Top- 20 hit also has a sister track, "50 Ways To Say Goodbye," which is a sort of "Drive By" meets the Latin fiesta of J. Lo's "Ain't It Funny." "Drive By" was a brilliant choice of a promotional single for not being too stylishly silly - and because "everything is groovy" is in the melody - but the group's second single release, "Feels Good At First," might not be so brilliant. It has that same medium-paced, gui- tar-accompanied rhythm used by the Plain White T's in all of their popular songs. One might call this the "Rhythm of Love." Not that one group has any sty- listic influence over the other, but listeners have probably had their fill of this type of song. Breaking its former musical pattern, Train collaborates with country singer Ashley Monroe on the album. A featured col- laboration is a first for Train, let alone one of a country style. Though "Bruises" is the group's first country number, Train is of the pop-rock genre, so it isn't like country is a complete 180 on its sound. But a country duet does combine a fascinating handful of firsts into one track. The album won't produce any hits on the level of "Hey, Soul Sister" or "Drops of Jupiter," but if this is a cause for disap- pointment, drown it out with the record's goofy, charming content. It's sure to cure these bitter feel- ings - though in an ironic sort of way. Train shines with confi- dence in California 37, blooming heaps of lyrical originality and' feel-good melody. The album is more fun than fun. itself. Every year, thousands of dollars, pounds, yen, rubles and wishes are thrown into fountains. Some of those wishes are dead serious, some frivo- lously flipped, chucked or tossed. And inevitablythe change piles up, the coins get dried out, the dreams JOE linger on. DIMUZIO Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" has torpedoed its way to ubiquity over the last couple months. It has sped under the surface from its September release last year toward a vol- canic eruption of popularity through Justin Bieber's Twit- ter, radio play from Billboard to Belgium and omnipresent, speaker-decimating broadcasts from every other open porch and house party in Ann Arbor. "I threw a wish in the well" it begins - all typified, pop roman- tic - barely cooed over a quiet kick drum and synthesized vio- lins, easily subsumed by crowds, packed houses and pumped kegs. As it skips toward that chorus, it links arms with everybody who hasn't caught on with it yet... cheers, whoops, hollers, smiles, groans. You hear that? "Call Me, Maybe" is on. The refrain hits, little else matters. I've heard it blasted while rolling around in the trunk of a friend's pick-up truck, and leak- ing out of more than a couple earbuds on buses Iwill stop rid-. ing soon. It became the de rigeur topic of more than a few pre- class, Michigan-time whispered conversations. My Italian pro- fessor was forced to hear it. I've seen it inspire drunken whirling- dervish hysteria, exasperated moans and absolute confusion all within a few square feet. I've marked the last four years of my time here with pop songs. I've recalled memories that I'd forgotten with the help of a few treacly bars and refrains. I came to Ann Arbor with some wishes, songs and friendships. And I've seen a lot of change. If the phone ever rang on the landline phone in my old East Quad dorm in Prescott, I was prone to stare in fear rather than pick it up. Filling out my taxes, I wasn't sure which home was home, which phone number to put down. The transience of college - like a fantastic and particularly expensive pop song - confused, inspired and changed me. Expressing that growth, shift and desire over the last four years has been the toughest challenge of all. Pop music is a metaphor for collegiate souls. We have plenty of options for communication now, each with their individual sensitivities, style and depth. We can reserve quidk, angular hieroglyphics for texts. Sprawling prose for e-mails, massaging keyboards in search of meaning. Breaking out the archaic hand-written letter, ever so rarely, to express perhaps our most grave and heartfelt feelings - with our hands press- ing the pen, cramping the mus- cles in our hand, driving ink into paper, letting our mind change in the course of a sentence hur- tling toward a period that either succeeds or fails to adequately end it. But Carly wants to be called. She wants the intimacy of hear- ing the voice, the extemporane- ous speed and feeling - just shy of commitment - of actual, physical presence ... Is there anything more typical of my generation? Carly's asking, sure, but she's really demanding. That "maybe" in the refrain is no expression of doubt, but rather an acknowl- edgement of possibility. It sug- gests that sometimes promises are not kept; that wishes have that nasty opportunity of never coming true. And that some- times, the unexpected or mirac- ulous can happen - whether you recognize it now or after four years, thousands of dollars, friendships and late nights. Carly's not throwing her coin into the well without a little bit of faith. "Before you came into my life / I missed you so bad," she says, as the MIDI orchestra swirls over and over, the kick drum pulses harder and a shrill guitar does acrobatic loops in the background. Like a good roman- tic, she knew he existed before she met him. We sing along with her, we watch old dreams die, we blow out candles, we make new ones. We change our phone numbers, we lose our phones, we try and choose the best words o express ourselves and sing futile jingles in the divide between meaning and feeling. You hit repeat. The town looks a little different. Younger kids take your place, throwing their coins into the fountain. There's always construction. You begin to forget people, music, whole years. Some pop songs come along and help you remember. You hit repeat. Dimuzio is graduating. To contact him, maybe, e-mail shonenjo@umich.edu. TM4 &* za242A1 8VMTsdYA4 2 Oi Want to have dinner with Joel Salatin?! Come to "From Doctrine to Dirt, an Evening with Joel Salatin," April 24th, 4 - 6pm At this VIP fundraiser, you'll have a chance to meet Joel Salatin, hear him speak in a small setting, and enjoy a meal by local celebrity chefs from the People's Food Co-op, The Grange Kitchen and Bar, The Raven's Club, Silvio's Organic Pizza, and The Brinety. Find out more at joelsalatin.eventbrite.com i INFORMATION OPEN HOUSE Tuesday, April 24,2012 6 - 8 p.m. Short program begins at 6:30 p.m. Hors d'oeuvres and $1,000 scholarship drawing for all who attend Henry Ford Academy School for Creative Studies 485 W Milwaukee Street Detroit, Ml 48202 0 RSVP: www~umflint.edu/Sraduateprograms/ifosession~.htmf 11 I-IN