PROPS FOR II Rowena Rose M. Lee
Except for unimaginative title, II is a boss album that is very pop rock and very Savage-Garden-meets-Hootie-And-The-Blowfish. THE CALLING’S second album has a lot of bass downpour and is a percussion spanking collection of songs that range from social commentaries to the ol’ lovey-dovey tunes. It deserves to be played at full volume anywhere, even and especially if your septuagenarian grandmother is house visiting. II is a musical performance that robs anyone the volition to disengage from the head bobbing experience. Of course, THE CALLING isn’t complete without Alex Max Band’s rich but rough orgasm-inducing baritone.
The conception of II sees the departure of all but Alex Band and Aaron Kamin. 23-year-old Band and 27-year-old Aaron Kamin stress in a press release dated April 1, 2004 that II is a reference to the “band having two principals” (MTV News). This is in response to a lawsuit that former THE CALLING member Billy Mohler and Nate Wood filed last year.
Kamin’s musical genius is felt throughout the entire album. For II, he plays acoustic, lead and bass guitars. He plays the organ and the piano. He plays the percussions. He also mixes and pre-programs almost half of the songs in II. He even does a cameo in track 11 Your Hope. His speaking voice announces in the background “There’s so many things we just don’t know about,” and “I think we all know what its like to feel alone.”
II is also markedly different from the string and drum work on CAMINO PALMERO, THE CALLING’S first album (2001). II’s synthesizers and computer mix are liver thumping that moves consciously on the path of the (now disbanded) Australian-based band Savage Garden.
Last August, THE CALLING released its second single.
Band croons amidst the plucking scales of the lead guitar, “So take my hand / don’t let me surrender / ‘cause maybe someday / in time / things will go my way.” The song carries as much angst as the next post-pubescent-but-not-yet-quite-into-adulthood song but Band’s low and jagged ranting is enough to make people think, “Hey yeah, this is my song.”
As with the first album, THE CALLING comments on the plight of the homeless in the States. One by One (track 1) however is less jaded than We're Forgiven (2001). One by One is more hopeful, preachy even, about how one person can make a difference in the world. This train of thought is echoed in the songs Believing (track 5) and Our Lives (track 2).
Apparently, such heartbreaking sentimental songs (like Wherever You Will Go, Could It Be Any Harder and Stigmatized ) are not to be included in II. The love songs in the new album in fact, bear whimsical themes and have feel-good touches as that of Chasing the Sun (track 4) and Dreaming in Red (track 10). Anything (track 6) is a love song that bests describes stalker obsession.
Darker songs like Your Hope, Somebody Out There (track 8) and If Only (track 7) are commendable less for their messages but more for their tempi. These songs go the way of Freshmen (Verve Pipe), Heaven (Live) and Let Her Cry (Hootie and the Blowfish). In extreme transmutation however, THE CALLING’S Surrender pretty much has the sentimentality of Backstreet Boy’s The Call.
II is for the aficionados of pop rock – the likes of Creed, Matchbox Twenty and Lifehouse. It is of course not as bone-jarring as Korn or Kid Rock but definitely a million times better than The Cardigans and Richard Ashcroft. At the very least, THE CALLING”S album can pull a body into a sway or into an air drumming session. But heck, it’s good enough to give grandma an orgasm or two.