Released just in time for Valentine's Day 2019,
The Love Train could be seen as a celebration of romance coming from a singer who had reason to extol the virtues of love.
Meghan Trainor married actor Daryl Sabara on December 22 -- her 25th birthday -- just months before
The Love Train, so it makes sense that the record is filled with songs about romance, including "Marry Me," a light, skipping tune that recalls
Jason Mraz at his sweetest. Certainly, new love is a good story -- almost as good a story as the EP's ridiculously overheated and carnal press release, which went viral the week of the record's release -- but it does disguise how
The Love Train is camouflaging the continued delay of
Treat Myself,
Trainor's third album, which was scheduled for release in late 2018.
The Love Train does suggest why
Treat Myself may be delayed: it's heavy on soaring ballads and persistent dance-pop that don't quite fit into the trends of the late 2010s. Often, the music feels strangely outdated, not stylish enough be a retro throwback, not contemporary enough to be a hit (this is especially true of "Foolish," with its stiff rap, and the gospel overtones of "Good Morning"). If these songs were heard on an album, they could've accentuated how
Trainor is slightly out of step with the times, but on this breezy, stopgap EP, they can be passed off as a holiday gift for fans anxious for a full-length album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine