13 May 2010
Really, this is from as late as 2010? In my mind I had carbon-dated ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ to the late ’90s and early ’00s, when Matchbox Twenty and the Goo Goo Dolls stalked the Earth. Also: really, this is the same band that did the blustery, pretentious soft rock hit ‘Drops Of Jupiter’? Indeed it is. That said, the jaunty chorus has an approving mention of mid-’80s soft rockers Mr Mister: right there in the chorus, front and centre, as if this were something to share in public.
The rinky-dink ukulele suggests Train have workshopped this for optimum wholefood-store wholesomeness and supermarket-ad ubiquity: “soul sister” here is not the rallying cry of Labelle’s ‘Lady Marmalade’ but Westlife-Guy-USA’s romantic-domestic pitch to his ‘soul mate’. If Kid Rock’s ‘All Summer Long’ was pitched at America’s redneck-and-proud heartlands, Train’s equally conservative and nostalgic ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ is its counterpart for the centrist suburbs. Stick with the subversive soul sisters of ol’ New Orleans instead.
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