Calla, the Middle East, April 13, 2007
By MELISSA POCEK | April 24, 2007
Calla |
Friday the 13th was a fitting date for Calla to play at the Middle East. Their fifth album, Strength by Numbers, is all doom and gloom: failed romances, desperation, pain. But the melancholic is part of the allure. It’s impossible to hear songs like “Defenses Down” and “Malicious Manner” and ignore that Calla has a fascination with agonizing relationships; from “A Sure Shot”: “You’re in my mind/ You’re in my head/ At this moment, you’re as good as dead.”And yet, Calla avoids being an just another depressing band, like Morrissey or the Cure. Perhaps it’s lead singer Aurelio Valle’s edgy, sexual voice that appeals to something vulnerable in all of us. Or maybe it’s drummer Wayne B. Magruder, who pounds the drums — hear “Sylvia’s Song” — like a heartbeat working overtime. Their breed of gloom aligns with bands like Interpol, Massive Attack, and the archives of Echo and the Bunnymen. And their lyrics are dark enough to pigeon hole them as yet another heartbroken band whose selling point results from the murk.
The band does less experimenting with sound on Strength by Numbers, particularly compared to their previous album, Collisions, in which their control over ghostly distortion laid a foundation for ambience that couldn’t be born of guitars and drums alone. Some of the songs they played off the new album sounded recycled from their previous albums. But part of what makes the new songs appealing is the return to form, now even more finely tuned.
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