I bought Train's first album shockingly enough for the song "Meet Virginia" and was happy to find the rest of the album was very good without being more of the same. Their second album, "Drops of Jupiter," continues that trend. Despite other influences, at heart their music is straightforward rock and this is demonstrated on the first track, "She's On Fire." It's a short on flash long on substance kicker of an opener with the drums coming as close to being the driving instrument as in any post-Led Zeppelin song I've heard.

The first three songs, in fact are all among the better tracks on the album. "She's On Fire" leads into "I Wish You Would," a track that features a harmonica and mandolin backing and a sound that an Oasis would crank out if they had let American rock share equally with their Beatlesque leanings. "Drops of Jupiter" is probably the catchiest, most radio-ready song on the album. With a sound orchestrated from strings, piano, and acoustic guitar, it weaves a melody that begs the listener to sing along. (I also learned from bitter experience that the whole time the song was begging me to sing along, my neighbors were begging me to stop.)

The music on some of the tracks is downright sparse as in the case of the fourth track, "It's About You." This is one of the tracks that I hoped the band would break lose and jam for several minutes on because the music provides the shell for a real ass-kicker. Hopefully in their live shows they do more free form jamming using the blueprints they've created for the album. Drums once again seem to really drive the rest of the music.

The band hits their creative stride, as far as I'm concerned, on the track "Something More." It's not the hardest hitting track on the album, but it's the track where the music and lyrics first come together on a grand scale. It's a symphonic work that builds layer by layer to a very nice crescendo. The very next track, "Whipping Boy," continues the grand sound only with a bit more of an edge.

Overall, with "Drops of Jupiter," Train has crafted a solid rock music gem and has managed to string two quality albums together back-to-back. In an era where labels and producers are constantly trying to latch onto the next big sound, it is unfortunately surprising when a band releases two good, consistent albums in a row. I am looking forward to seeing what Train does with album number three and am also looking forward to seeing them live. Until then, I'll keep their albums in heavy rotation and to hell with my neighbors: I'll sing if I want to. My neighbors should just be thankful I'm not more of an opera fan.