Train, by Goldfrapp
Relentless Over-indulgence
As I mentioned in my last post (https://www.jenxlovesmusic.com/home-1/2022/sour-times-portishead ) I unknowingly went through a little 1990s Trip Hop phase. Slowed down tempo, seductive female vocals, dance inspired synths strong features of this style. Train by Goldfrapp, although released outside of the nineties in 2003, is still very much in that vein. It’s from their second album, Black Cherry, and reached the top 30 in the UK charts as a single in 2003. The song is said to represent the allure and destructiveness of wealth, drugs and sex which Alison Goldfrapp observed whilst in Los Angeles. Feeling “a sort of disgust of it and at the same time a sort of need to indulge in these things.” Can we hear that in the music?
How do they do that?
Let’s start with the ‘literal’ interpretation of the song’s title. What is instantly noticeable in this music is the relentless mechanical rhythm. We think train because of the title of the song, but the rhythm itself could represent any large, industrial machinery. What makes it feel particularly railroad is when the vocal harmonies imitate an American freight train whistle. It is then unmistakably about a train. The relentless motion of the train then becomes a metaphor for obsession or addiction, or maybe just being caught up in a world of overindulgence that is then difficult to break free from. In a city that never sleeps, the nightlife is both intoxicating and exhausting where, as the lyrics emphasise, you “can’t stop!” We find ourselves drawn in and enjoying the rhythm at the start, but by the end of the song we want to break out of it - it’s become too much and we’ve had enough.
The smooth, sultry vocals remain in the vein of Beth Gibbons (Portis Head) and Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins). But against that relentless rhythm, there is something almost threatening about them, perhaps like.a mythological Siren luring sailors to their death on the rocks. The vocal line is very smooth (legato), using swoops and slurs between notes that creates a slow drawling effect that is slightly out of phase with the rest of the music. A sense of being “out of it” on drugs or hedonism in general. All of this punctuated by a warning bell sound (can you hear the alarm clock in the background)?. This is reminiscent of the cimbalon in Sour Times. It is unsettling, warning that things are not quite right.
For me, this song very successfully draws you in at first, but becomes more and more oppressive and cloying until by the end you want to break away from it and are glad it’s over. Yet, it is still a song I like to go back to, so really seems to achieve that combination of disgust but need to indulge, just as its writers intended.
Hope you enjoy it or feel inspired to listen to something new today.
