Silvertrain - I Thought I Knew You

Hear The Track Here

Stop me if you've heard this one before. No, belay that, because I know you will have heard it before. John Brandon saying ' first track of the next *cough* Silvertrain CD then' - notice the discreetly placed cough - is a sentence I have seen a time or two, usually followed by a long, long wait. Always worth it mind because when Silvertrain actually DO get it together, the result is most worthwhile - in a pop rock, one minute wonder kind of way. Their innate sense of what makes a good chorus, and the blend of their two voices (Ritchie Allen being the other member) is something to behold, if you like close harmony rock that is. I know that there are TON of Silvertrain addicts out there so anything new from this is usually highly prized.

So, a new track?

Welllll, not really. Ritchie is supposed to come and add the vocals to I Thought I Knew You at some indeterminate date in the future so John takes up the vocal duties again. ' Please excuse my vocal' he says, as if they are somehow bad. Let me make one thing clear, John is an excellent singer in his own right but if I had a choice I want to hear the both of them. There, said it. No more. Another surprise is that they seemed to have gained an extra member, one L.Gonzalez to be precise. Whodat? Seems to have made a hell of a difference, whoever he/she/it is, this track kicks butt in the back-in-the-day style this band first introduced to Soundclick back in 2003. A welcome return to style and sure as **** Ritchie is gonna smoke on this, John's having a whale of a time of it and it shows.

Tell you the truth, I had pretty much given up expecting this band to up their pace; after all real life is indeed a bitch. However, something has breathed new life into a track that I was very lukewarm about when I reviewed it's first incarnation in March 2007, and even in that review I did single John's vocal out for particular praise. In truth, if you took I Thought I Knew You as it stands now (a new version was just uploaded before this review) and said this was a Silvertrain track my reaction would be the same. Now maybe Ritchie will set this thing on fire, cos it's certainly smouldering nicely right now. As I said, a very welcome return to form.

Highly Recommended Pop rock song. MUST HAVE for train addicts.