Train
Train Does Led Zeppelin II

"The latest album by Train is pretentious, confused, and unnecessary. Covering Led Zeppelin is a rite of passage for every fourteen-year-old, but Pat Monahan is 47. Why not just listen to it? After soft rock blunders like Drops Of Jupiter, the band could have spared us this artless work, since no one asked for it".

THOMAS LAFORGIA, NYDAILYNEWS

So, dear Tom, many of the words used in the article make me feel that you are a perfect idiot.

Not for musical differences, mind you, but the words UNNECESSARY flipped a switch.

1- In the history of rock and roll, nothing has ever been necessary or asked for, and honestly, I don’t understand what is "necessary music", an adjective that I can only see paired with words like TOILET PAPER.

2- In the history of rock and roll, artists who have made choices or taken actions that are out of the box and unexpected have defined, enriched, and changed the fortunes and history of the genre. For better or worse, I believe this is precisely the spirit that pushed the birth of punk, to give an example.

3- Train is a band that excels in slow songs, ballads, and this is their style, very different from Led Zeppelin, with whom they share neither charisma nor historical period, and the question is: So what? What's the problem with paying tribute to an artist different from myself? Do we live enclosed in fences with signs like "soft" or "hard&heavy"?

4- Train started as a cover band, guess which group.

5- The proceeds from their concert where they played the album in its entirety, and the album itself, were donated to the Family House of San Francisco.

6- The album sounds great, they play wonderfully, and Pat has a distinctive and versatile voice, whether he's singing that piece of crap Drive By, or when he screams I WANNA GIVE YOU MY LOOOVE.

The songs are classics, and I don't think there's need for additional reflections on that, but they are well arranged, well recorded, and my only criticism is indeed the fact that it lacks that touch, that change, that audacity to deface and add something that would have made the whole project more rock n roll, even though it already is.

And that music critics laugh heartily only to change their minds, just as they did with The Velvet Underground & Nico in 1967 and always will do.