Last Train Home (Kaden Walsh Album)

**Last Train Home**" Is the debut Studio album by Irish recording artist and producer Kaden Walsh, released on May 25, 1998 by newly formed indie record Prism Records. All tracks were written, produced, composed and even arranged by Walsh. Walsh started recording the album as soon as February of 1998 where the album was recorded at Angel Studios with a budget of $350,000. Walsh was often left to heard what Michael Davies (the manager of Prism Records at the time, up until 2002) as to what tracks he should leave on the album.

*Last Train Home* reached Number 27 on the Japan album charts, the highest peak of the albums charting, and Number 34 in his home country of the UK, it reached Number 55 on the Billboard 200 Albums charts. "Last Train Home" it's lead single, became a Top 20 hit in the UK, but became his first Top 10 in Australia.

## Production

Walsh started recording in February of 1998 at Angel Studios. Manager at the time Michael Davies was helping Walsh find what often worked and what didn't work on the album when compiling it together, often usually leading into fights about what sounded sonically better than one another.

In March of the same year, the basic tracking had been done for a majority of the same tracks including the first lead single. Though Davies often stated that another lead single should've been chosen, Walsh would often state that he knew what he was doing musically as an introduction. The basic instrumentation from the album including Guitars, Vocals, Drums and even Piano were done by Walsh during the time of recording.

On April 18th, the album had been mixed and completed, only leaving it a window of a month for marketing given that the marketing team (two at the time) wanted it to have it as a Mid-Year launch in the hopes that it would be more successful. Walsh had the design of the album cover and singles in mind before anyone had openly suggested it with Walsh sitting on a box for the track list and him sitting on the floor for the single "Dear Diary". In order to save money, Walsh opted in to use the album cover for the title track.

## Singles

"Last Train Home", the singles title track and lead single, charted in the UK where it charted within the Top 20. The albums second single "Dear Diary" due to the immense success of the albums launch, became a bigger hit only in the UK where it charted at Number 38. Becoming Walsh's first UK Top 40.

## Critical reception

Thomas Walters of BBC Music Magazine gave it one of the highest ratings amongst the bad of reviews, 3 stars. Who wrote "though there's not much charm to the album production wise, you can hear where a young 20 year old Irishman wants to go, but whatever seems to be this album, isn't where it's going to go, if it's nothing but down"

 BBC Music
 Billboard.com
 The Guardian
 Yahoo! Music
 Allmusic

## Commercial performance

On release in 1998, *Last Train Home* debuted at Number 7 on the UK charts, his home country and highest charting position for the album. Number 67 in the US and Number 9 on the ARIA Charts. Worldwide, it approximately sold 350,000 sales in 1998. The album went to even chart at Number 21 on the Japanese Oricon Charts.

## Track listing

All songs are written by Walsh, except where noted

 **3** | Cool Wit It
 **5** | Put It All In Perspective
 **6** | Murder Was The Case
 **7** | Rags to Riches
 **8** | Too Much Energy

## Personnel

* Kaden Walsh - All Vocals, All Instruments, Production, Audio Engineering, Notor Logic
* Michael Davies - Executive producer

## Certification

 **United Kingdom (BPI)** | Gold
 **Worldwide Sales** |  | 525,000