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Laurence Juber - My Private Nation

Details

Format: CD
Catalog: 86593
Rel. Date: 06/03/2003
UPC: 696998659322

My Private Nation
Artist: Laurence Juber
Format: CD
Used: Available
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''My Private Nation'' is San Francisco-based rock band Train's third studio album, which was released on June 3, 2003. It includes the hit single "Calling All Angels" which was a Top 20 Hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It was also re-released on February 8th, 2005, as a dual disc with a DVD included. - Wikipedia

With their unexpectedly massive debut in 1998 and the ubiquitous single "Meet Virginia," Train found an accidental and unaffected formula for getting music on the radio. With 2001's Drops of Jupiter and now My Private Nation, Train has had to try to replicate the alchemy of their first album without sounding as though they're deliberately measuring the ingredients for the perfect album. The band's success on Jupiter was largely a result of their seamless pop chops intersecting with a populist yet never glaringly transparent songwriting ethic.

On My Private Nation, Train appears to be working a little harder at hiding the seams while using familiar devices like rhyming triplets, big bona fide pop hooks and chord progressions that could have been sampled from Counting Crows ("Calling All Angels") or Alanis Morrissette ("When I Look to the Sky"). The one thing that saves Train from sinking into a morass of contrivance and calculation is the band's aforementioned pop chops and the sincerity with which they offer the relative slickness of My Private Nation. As with the new Liz Phair album, Train can hardly be faulted for meticulously constructing songs in a bid for placement on radio playlists thin enough to qualify as malnourished. Thankfully, Train has enough legitimate talent to successfully mask the obvious attempts at hitmaking and enough savvy to capitalize on the opportunities at hand. Now if radio would only open up its playlists to '70s levels of inclusiveness and make this discussion obsolete.
        
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