2003 single by Lostprophets
"Last Train Home" is the second single from Start Something, the second album by the Welsh rock band Lostprophets. This single was the band's highest charting single in the UK up to that point, later tied with "Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)" off of their follow-up. It quickly became their most successful single in the United States, reaching number one on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart. "Last Train Home" was released to radio on 27 December 2003.[5]
Release and reception
"Last Train Home" was released on 27 December 2003 and quickly became the most successful single from Start Something, propelling it to becoming the band’s biggest hit. The song peaked at number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and number ten on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the Spring of 2004. "Last Train Home" is the second Lostprophets single to ever chart in the U.S., the first one being "Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja". The song won the Kerrang! Award for Best Single.
The song had managed to beat fellow UK rock band The Darkness' hit single I Believe in a Thing Called Love (released in September 2003), charting twelve spots higher on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts upon release in December 2003, becoming the highest charting single in the United States from any UK artist in 2003.[6]
The song gained much popularity in the United States through radio airplay and the music video saw regular rotation on MTV.[7] The song would later be ranked #10 on Billboard's year-end rock charts in the United States.[8]
Johnny Loftus of AllMusic said, "'Last Train Home' was an absolute masterpiece of a single mixing board surgery, flawlessly, brazenly binding the properties of three of California's most marketable acts into one monster of an alternative rock anthem, sung by a bunch of immaculately T-shirted dudes from Pontypridd. Beginning with an instrumental run through its unstoppable chorus, the song drifted into faraway echoes of piano as vocalist Ian Watkins emoted vaguely meaningful lyrics like 'Love was once apart / But now it's disappeared.'"[2]
Kirk Miller of Rolling Stone said "Last Train Home" is "one of the catchiest hard-rock songs to hit the radio in the past three years. Singer Ian Watkins has Mike Patton's croon/scream down cold, and his group deftly applies FNM's anything-goes approach: equal parts thrash riffs, symphonic keyboards and moody jazz intervals."[3]
"Last Train Home" was also the song which introduced Geoff Rickly to Lostprophets.[9] Rickly would go on to form No Devotion with the other members after Watkins' conviction in 2013.[citation needed]
Music video
The music video was directed by Brian Scott Weber and was shot in various Downtown Los Angeles locations in November 2003. In addition to receiving frequent radio airplay in the United States, the video would see frequent rotation on MTV from 2003 to 2005.[11] The band are seen performing on a truck bed, surrounded by multiple fans. The shots of the band are intercut with footage of several fans skateboarding and driving around the city in a Chevrolet Impala. Ian Watkins wears a Pittsburgh Strikers (an amateur football club in Western Pennsylvania) T-shirt during the video.
