Spilt Milk was recorded in London with Jimmy Hogarth, the sought-after British producer whose recent credits include Duffy, Corinne Bailey Rae and James Blunt. Powerhouse songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and arranger Eg White – Grammy Awards Record of the Year nominee for Adele’s “Chasing Pavements” – co-wrote most of this material. Singer and pianist Ed Harcourt also co-wrote two, including the climactic “Far From the Country,” an especially poignant and personal conclusion to the disc, about the physical and emotional distances one must bridge to keep love alive
For inspiration, Train turns to Aretha Franklin – “There is not a song that Aretha has sung or will ever sing that doesn’t just melt me” – along with blues/R&B cult figures like former Stax star/Raelette Mable John and Bob Dylan-favorite Karen Dalton. Says Train, “I wanted my album to offer glimpses of my influences, not sound like my influences. Jimmy, Eg and I are of similar backgrounds, we appreciate the same music; we have similar tastes. The arrangements are just what we felt the songs needed, they give the songs flavor but don’t try to steal anybody else’s style. I hope the album is a nod to the music I love, while still being modern.”
Music has been at the center of Train’s world since she was a toddler, when her mother encouraged her to play the violin. Train took to the instrument, but, more importantly, she also discovered an innate aptitude as a singer, with unerring pitch and a preternaturally mature delivery from a very young age. Says Train, “There’s depth to my voice and I think it comes from a lot of different places. But the way I sound today is the way I always sounded -- except in a tinier body.”
As an artist, Train could never simply be described as a product of her times and that has allowed her, on Spilt Milk, to create music that can arguably be called timeless. Her mom, who raised Train alone, fashioned what some might view as a sheltered existence for the young Train, keeping her away from television and pop radio. But what she really did was provide a fertile laboratory for Train to freely grow as a young woman and a singer, apart from the vagaries of trends. Train took music and ballet lessons and listened to classical music and opera, along with jazz and blues. Her violin training definitely came in handy: Train has arranging credits on three of her tracks and overdubbed strings on two of them.
Though born in New York City, Train was raised in Savannah, Georgia, and southern soul and gospel, which she sang in church and school choirs growing up, has had the most profound effect on her work. Almost as significant was the moment when, as a teenager, she unearthed her mom’s tucked-away stash of vinyl albums from the sixties and seventies: Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin. Say Train,” I remember hearing Janis Joplin’s records and thinking, what is that all about? We lived in downtown Savannah, in a house kind of like a New York City brownstone. When we had thunderstorms I would go up to the roof and scream at the top of my lungs because I wanted to make my voice raspier. God only knows what that’s done to me!”
By the time Train was 19, she was already singing professionally, albeit locally. A producer based in the south who’d spotted Train arranged to bring her up to New York City to showcase for Blue Note. The label chiefs offered Train a development deal – but her mom had other ideas. She insisted her daughter go to college first. Many a confident and headstrong young artist would rebel and go it alone, accept the deal and take their chances. But Train – reluctantly, she now admits – listened to her mom. She agreed to attend college in Athens, Ga., keeping her hand in music by joining a band and spending far more time rehearsing and gigging than hitting the books. And when she was ready to return to her career full-time, Blue Note was still waiting.
It was time well-spent, Train now realizes: “I know that at 19, I would not have made this record, which is the record I always wanted to make. This is the album that defines who I am. At 19, I don’t know what I would have put out. I believe everything happened for a reason. It took this amount of time for me to get here and to make this record. I always knew it would happen. “
Train made several trips to London over the course of two years, to write with Hogarth and White, but the actual recording moved quickly. In fact, Train was such a natural that some of the vocal performances they chose came straight from the song demos they’d originally done. Right before they were about to embark on their final sessions, though, a disastrous computer glitch during file back-up resulted in the loss of much of what they’d already completed. As Train recalls, “It was the perfect electronic storm.” Undaunted, she and her cohorts went back in and re-cut the vanished material with even more passion and determination, the setback turning out to be far more inspiration than challenge. Looking back, Train says, “I don’t think anything was lost. I don’t think there was this one magic moment that we could never recapture. I love what it is today.” And the experience provided her with an album title. “Don’t cry over spilt milk.”
Train’s confidence and faith in what she has created is part of what makes Spilt Milk so thrilling: “There’s just this magic thing that happens sometimes and you think, I want to sing this song for the rest of my life – I want to live in it, I want to bury myself in it, I want to wriggle around in it.. Every time I finished one, it was like, I can’t believe that, at this point in my life I finally have a song I would fight for, that I believe in 100% percent. And now I have all these songs together on an entire album that I feel this way about. For me, that’s my college degree.”
January
Kristina Train Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
walk along the bridge in silence
I feel like a desert island
waiting to be found
good times will come in January
they've been a stranger to me
good time will come in January
I see the lights go out through the shutters
I see reflected stars in the gutters
I feel like a childless mother
waiting to be found
on new year eve
I want to tell you on new year eve
I want to tell you how I feel
The lyrics of Kristina Train's song "January" paint a picture of isolation and hope. The opening lines, "after all the streets go quiet, walk along the bridge in silence" conjure up an image of a peaceful, barren cityscape. The next line, "I feel like a desert island waiting to be found" taps into the theme of isolation and loneliness that continues throughout the song. The singer is awaiting connection, someone to rescue her from her solitude.
The refrain of the song is where the message of hope really shines through: "good times will come in January, they've been a stranger to me, good times will come in January, I'll meet you on New Year's Eve." The repetition of this phrase drives the message home, that things may be difficult now but there is always hope for a better future.
The final lines, "on New Year's Eve, I want to tell you how I feel" complete the story arc of the song. The singer has gone from feeling alone and isolated to anticipating a joyful New Year's Eve celebration with someone who will appreciate her. This is a song about the power of hope and human connection.
Line by Line Meaning
after all the streets go quiet
When everything is calm and still outside
walk along the bridge in silence
Strolling on the bridge without any noise
I feel like a desert island
Feeling lonely and isolated like an uninhabited island
waiting to be found
Hopeful for someone to come and discover me
good times will come in January
Expecting a better future in the upcoming year
they've been a stranger to me
The past had not been good to me
I'll meet you on new year eve
Anticipating a special encounter on New Year's Eve
I see the lights go out through the shutters
Observing the lights turning off from my window
I see reflected stars in the gutters
Noticing stars reflected in the puddles
I feel like a childless mother
Feeling empty and unfulfilled like a mother without a child
on new year eve
Looking forward to New Year's Eve
I want to tell you on new year eve
Yearning to confess true feelings on New Year's Eve
I want to tell you how I feel
Wishing to express innermost emotions
Writer(s): KRISTINA TRAIN, ED HARCOURT
Contributed by Cameron T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.