This 'train' doesn't stop

Recorded at a live club show in Birmingham, Ala., Train's Alive at Last is a guilty pleasure -- it sounds really, really good, and as a live album it probably has as good a crowd presence as I've heard, comparable to Ben Folds Five's Naked Baby Photos. Songs like "Calling all Angels" and "She's on Fire" are just absolutely crackling -- the instrumentation is flawless, the emotion is all there and the disc actually generates a certain degree of excitement.\nYeah, yeah, Train may be just another mainstream rock band, and they might write simplistic lyrics, for sure. However, if your ear is tuned towards catchy, good songs, you'll probably be converted (just as I was). I can't handle "Meet Virginia" -- it sounds too much like that stupid Nine Days song about the story of the girl -- but there is something undeniably infectious about this record, something that makes you just yield to fun, no matter how jaded and dyed-black you think you are. "New Sensation" and "Drops of Jupiter" are ear-pleasing and fun, not to mention well-recorded.\nLive albums are just greatest hits albums in disguise, and this one provides an excellent introduction to a band that does its damnedest to get stuck in your head. Some of the songs fall into lulls; I'm not saying that they're auteurs on the scale of The Beatles, but I am saying they're fun to listen to and this album is worth giving a shot.