Silvertrain - I Thought I Knew You

Hear The Track Here

The surest sign that an artist is doing well on Soundclick is in the number of stations playing AND the amount of plays ascribed to a particular artist. In Silvertrain's case, they are just coming up to their 500,000 play (this is a VERY big deal, don't make that mistake) and their tracks feature on over 300 stations. That, my friends, is what I call making a success of being on a site like Soundclick. Should you think that breaking into a site like SC is easy, just be aware that Silvertrain have been Soundclick darlings ever since they first arrived here and for the longest time they were most definitely flavour of the month. So, although half a million plays sounds great - it's actually taken them a little over three years to clock up that number...

Aaah, doesn't look so easy now eh?

Having said all that, I Thought I Knew You is yet another in a never ending lineup of not-quite Silvertrain tracks. The two members of the band, Ritchie Allen and John Brandon, live a way away from each other and tracks are usually put together over a period of time, usually with Mr Song Machine himself (John Brandon) supplying the initial song before Ritchie either adds to it or not. Although this tends to present a very uneven view of the band (most of their better tracks are studio recorded), luckily they are both strong enough songwriters to be able to air what are essentially 'demo' recordings of their work without attracting too much flak for it. Although it has to be said, they have recieved their fair share from yours truly because - well, I expect more innit? It's not often these days that I have to take John to task about what he puts in front of us, his skill in 'fleshing out' the track has improved a hundredfold over the past couple of years as this track will amply show.

I think it's the very first time that I am able to say that I actually liked the drum track John supplied too, it actually sounds real which is no bad thing. Kinda surprised though to see that no lyrics had been posted at the time of writing this review which I can only assume is an oversight because - believe me - the lyrics are an essential part of the whole Silvertrain now-you-hear-it-now-you-don't experience. Masters of the two minute pop vignette for way back, I Thought I Knew You is absolutely staple Silvertrain material and - as John points out - may sound better with Ritchie's vocals. I don't know about that. Apart from it being a fairly noisy track overall, I think John's vocal on this is what makes the song happen. Admittedly, you may well have to be a Silvertrain fan of long standing to understand that comment but no, IMHO this is John's song and I'm not sure it needs Ritchie's vocal (unless he supplies a counterpoint vocal of course). Now there's a thing to dream about. Excellent song, well performed and sung, even if the track itself is a little noisy.

Recommended, driving Pop/Rock.