Review: Steel Train - Steel Train

Steel Train - Steel Train

Combos. The famed snack distributed by Mars Incorporated. Since the mid 1970s, Americans have been blessed with the filling bite size snack. Whether it’s the Cheddar Cheese Cracker or Pepperoni Pizza Cracker, we all have loved it. The reason we love these un-healthy snacks is due to the weird combination. A filling center of your choice with a cracker stretching around it, making it appear as dog food.

New Jersey/New York’s Steel Train is something similar to a Combo. It’s a filling arrangement of music, pleasing the ear with Pop rock roots, embellishing that with dark words wrapped up with a crazed attitude. After the releasing of the 2007 album Trampoline, the animals give us their latest effort.

The self-titled album is a record illustrating different sides and colors. “Bullet”, the introduction to the album, can be taken into different accounts. Singer/Guitarist Jack Antonoff said the song is about his sister and how they’ve been through a lot throughout their lives. In my retrospect, I take it as a relationship. A dysfunctional one.

The five piece suit tell the tale of loved ones that aren’t working out anymore through ‘You And I Undercover’. Antonoff hints to the listener how, “All I want is a soldier, hand and hand with you”, saying how he needs someone to be there for her since he cannot anymore. You can move onto the track ‘Touch Me Bad’. The name suggests other things. And while the track is a crazed wrecking train mixed with poppy hooks and humming choruses, Antonoff describes the rough times he endured in the past.

There’s a fair portion of the album I didn’t discuss because I want you to be the judge. If you’re looking for smack in the face indie-pop, you’ve found it. If you’re looking for something different from the mainstream, you’ve found it. If you’re looking for your album of the year, you’ve found it.

Rating: 9.5