Music Review: Train "Drops of Jupiter"

Drops of Jupiter
Album: Drop of Jupiter
Year: 2001

Pat Monahan idealizes a free spirit young woman he cares for in the soggy and mind-blogging "Drops of Jupiter."

A misty piano begins the single, creating an admiring tone. The young woman is otherworldly to him. She sees things in the world he can't. He praises her with underdeveloped similes.
He says she acts like summer but doesn't explain how. Summer is different in various parts of the United States, depending on the state. If she's like a Florida summer, she's unforgiving and steamy. If she's a Michigan summer, she's unpredictable and cool. He also says she "walks like the rain." Again, rain can beat down on the ground rapidly or it can simply sputter. Which is it?

So far, Monahan has told the listeners nothing about his dream girl. However, she does push him to understand himself. She's come back from her journey, rejunvated and eager to learn new things. She's patient and waits him for him bloom (like spring, which I could assume Monahan was trying to convey.) Her conversations are humid, sticky and sprinkled with some gray clouds of despair. ("Now that she's back in the atmosphere/With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey/She acts like summer and walks like rain/Reminds me that there's time to change, hey, hey/Since the return from her stay on the moon/She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey.")

In the chorus, he asks about her experiences on her journey. As she discovered herself, did she finally reach bliss? Was she able to see what the world really looks like once it's quiet? Did heaven live up to her expectations? He wonders if she met another guy, who wasn't damaged like him. He also asks her if she cared what he was up to back home. ("Tell me did you sail across the sun/Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded/And that heaven is overrated/Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star/One without a permanent scar/And did you miss me while you were looking at yourself out there.")

In the redundant second verse, Monahan simply repeats the ideas which were sung before. However, it uses different terms to describe them. She's living at home again, contemplating her experiences and how they matter in her daily life. She listens to classic music while doing fad exercises from celebrity trainers. The normalcy inspires him to be a better person. He believes he won't be good enough for her now. She's traveled the world and he's still the same person he was when she left. ("Now that she's back from that soul vacation/Tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey/She checks out Mozart while she does Tae-bo/Reminds me that there's time to grow, hey, hey/Now that she's back in the atmosphere/I'm afraid that she might think of me as plain ol' Jane/Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land.")

In the chorus, he asked her if fell in love with nature and if you observed watching the sun glisten on a river. He asks her Hollywood and its vanity floored her. He wants to know if she figured out what she needed to. But most importantly, if she thought about him. ("Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet/Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day/
And head back to the Milky Way/And tell me, did Venus blow your mind/Was it everything you wanted to find/And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there.")

In the bridge, he thinks of the all things he would miss if he were gone for a while: being alone and ashamed, eating deep-fried chicken, having close friends standing up for your opinons. He also thinks of not enjoying his first dance with a girlfriend, having a relationship which isn't stable or talking on the phone with the person for nearly a day. Her favorite drink is a soy latte and he asks, what would she do without it and him in her life. ("Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken/Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you're wrong/
Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone conversation/The best soy latte that you ever had . . . and me.")

The chorus (second, then first) is sung twice. "Na, na na's" end the single.

With less similes and more description, "Drops of Jupiter" wouldn't be as puzzling as it is. What is a freeze-dried romance? It's a surreal, imaginative phrase but what he is trying to say? Unfortunately, the lyric is dumb in its current context. There isn't a solid idea of what the girl is about. Summer, rain, and June could be intrepreted hundreds of ways. He's insecure and intimidated by her which is all the listeners find out.

The music arrangement, however, is the right kind of cheesy. The strings flourish at the perfect times, the piano is inspirational when it should be. As an instrumental, it would work.
However, Monahan's Noun-of-the-Day calendar needs to be destroyed and replaced with an Anne Sexton book.

For price, tracklisting and other album information please visit Amazon.com.