Search - Soltero :: Hell Train

One of the Greatest Albums Ever

Mike Smith | Albuquerque, NM | 10/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is "Hell Train," by Soltero, and I have to say, quite honestly, that it's some of the best music I have ever heard. Period.

Soltero has always been good, from his early releases under the names The Taco Cat and Tim Howard, to Soltero's early Mobius Band-Backed "Science Will Figure You Out," to the sad, dynamic, horn-filled "Defrocked and Kicking the Habit," to the wispy and quiet Mamas and the Papas-influenced "Tongues You Have Tied."

But now.... Now....

This is something different. Different, and even better. And not just different for Soltero either--different for music. This is an album that makes me want to write a manifesto, to rant, to copy the album a thousand times and force the copies onto everyone I know.

These songs are the work of a musical genius who will one day be esteemed and revered along with the very best of modern music. The sound of Hell Train could be compared to a lot of bands--East River Pipe, Pavement, Neil Young, Yo La Tengo, The Beach Boys, The Magnetic Fields, Elliott Smith--and yet, it can be compared to no one.

No one sounds like this. No one sounds this good.

This a cohesive album that ties itself together in a thousand ways, that flows and rocks, challenges and excites. It will make you feel good, it will make you feel sad, it will make you think, it will make you press "Repeat All" and never want to leave the room. The structures of the songs are always original--often like nothing you've ever heard before--the instrumentation is inspired and unique, Tim Howard's voice is always dead on and sardonic and genuine, and the songs' lyrics couldn't be more clever or more original.

The album kicks off with the quiet "If I Had a Chance," and the lyrics: "If I had a chance to make things right, I'd only waste it on my life," and right from there you know the album has GOT IT.

"Bleeding Hearts" confesses a sad fact about Soltero's and my generation--we get together to have a great time around a campfire, "And never talk about how we've given up on life. And never talk about how far we've got left to fall. And never talk about all these things that we can't control." The song is great, but it's the end of it that's the most mind-blowing. The song, which up until this point had been shambling along sadly, suddenly reaches a steep hill, and starts hurtling down it, instruments flying, bike horns honking, and you're dragged along with it, out of control. This is no jam though, this is a focused--although recklessly dangerous--descent into who knows where.

"Michael," which previously appeared on the excellent compilation "These Are Center St. Tracks" under the title "Wedding Day," is a beautiful and creepy song to a young New Mexican guy about to get married and most likely pulled back into the church he grew up in, a young man who finds consolation in driving dirt roads and clambering among adobe ruins. I can relate to this song, and I love it. Its instrumentation is unique and hard to figure out, but it sounds great. It also makes reference to a "heaven track" that fits the "Hell Train" of the album's title just perfectly.

Then, there's "Hands Up." This song has got a build. What a build! The "Stairway to Heaven" of indie-rock...except actually cool. It's the track I play for people to introduce them to this album, or to introduce them to Soltero in general, and it's the track that always keeps them coming back for more. The song starts quiet, bursts and flowers into guitar, explodes with female vocals, never stops moving forward with wild mercury drumsticks-in-a-clothes dryer rhythm, various guitar lines and (I think) keyboard notes cascading and tearing through everything.

"Acadian Coast" is a very dark song about a relationship gone bad that seems far too convincing to be fictional, or if it is, this guy's a genius at fiction. It begins with almost a minute of total silence that serves to set it (and the songs to follow) slightly apart from the first tracks of the album. Strange effects slide into the music, effects like the sounds of a thousand seagulls, as the vocals sing about a relationship so much like a sinking ship of the coast of Maine. The song's lyrics are some of the best on the album, and conclude with this: "We kept that sinking ship afloat / Though the hole was bigger than the boat / And the sights that we admired the most

Were the sights that we would never see.... / We kept that sinking ship afloat / But only long enough to know / That you and me / were not made for the sea."

And "Songs of the Season" is a jaunty little track that seems like a happy little pop song, like a deleted number from a happy play about settling Oklahoma. It's got an amazing chorus, great and stretching vocals, great backing vocals, and even, even...whistling! The funny thing about this song, is that it gets sadder with every listen. At first it seems almost like a Christmas song-"with the songs of the season in the air tonight like buzzards(!)"-but the lyrics are not happy ones. They're barely even hopeful. "Could it be oh could all your dreams just up and disappear? Could it be you won't get what you wanted this year? Could it be oh could all your dreams just up and disappear? Could be exactly like you feared / With a cigarette there on your lips / Canadian penny in your pocket / And your dreams and your hopes / Your family and friends / And the love you had planned to keep till the end / ...I hope you get them all back for Christmas...." This song has made my wife cry.

All of the other songs are great as well. Soltero is one of the greatest musicians out there today, and is undoubtedly better than whatever you're listening to right now. Listen to "Hell Train," and I guarantee you, if you have even the slightest bit of coolness in you, you will love it, you will check out his website, and you will want more. To know the music of Soltero is to love--and be obsessed by--the music of Soltero. You need this album. Your friends need this album. Everyone needs music this good, this innovative, this fun, and this deep-though few of us deserve it.

I know I don't."

Best of 2005

Joseph Sullivan | Brooklyn, NY | 10/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Soltero's been toiling away for some time--this in fact is his fourth album. He needs to be discovered soon, folks. He needs a contract with a major label. He deserves it.

This without a doubt is his best work to date. It starts out a little mellow with "If I Had a Chance" then gets raucous with "From the Station"--a psychedelic, L.A. sunshine sort of classic, the likes of which we've never heard from Soltero before. Well, maybe we have, but not this heightened, not this intense, not this euphoric. What's going on? I'll tell you what--the whole album is basically like this. Euphoric. Even when it's not, it is. Check out "Hands Up" and the freakout at the end at "Ghost at the Foot of the Bed." Or better yet, the freakout at the end of "Bleeding Hearts." No one is making music this good these days. No one. This blend of musical craftmanship and care along with sometimes scathing, sometimes heartbreaking lyrics, just isn't available from most artists recording music today. Check this one out."

Songs of the Season

Sara Leah Miller | Cincinnati, Ohio | 12/19/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sitting on the floor in Keith Harrelson's office one Monday afternoon, I discovered Soltero. We were going through submissions for booking and though my boss was not won over by Tim Howard's searching vocals and swaggering, playful melodies, I was in love. I took the EP home with me and played it over and over. Soon after I received two of his albums, "Tongues You Have Tied" and "Defrocked and Kicking the Habit".



I found that within his songs, Tim wrote his listener letters full of vibrant description and conversation. He simply relayed his hopes, intentions, and fears within the context of a crunchy, headwagging, cursive song. He told crazy stories or sad reminders with a deep, complex arrangement. Sure, you expect a song, the music, to embody the message...but with his songwriting, especially on his latest album, Hell Train, so much thought is put into everything. His mood is interwoven with every seperate sound and instrument, from the tiptoeing, austere organ slowly descending in the background of "Step Through the Door" to the faint dinking of a slightly offkey piano behind the sixties swagger of "Hand's Up".



This is an extraordinary album, one that I often find myself singing and dancing and scaring other drivers with as I make my trip home from work, and it also leaves me with a fresh familiarity..It has a strange ability give me dreams of slow, sad memory. It grabs every side, every emotion and leads them all together to a beautiful solemn end.



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