Calling Two CD

The Calling: Alex Band (vocals); Aaron Kamin (guitar).
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
The Calling: Aaron Kamin, Alex Band.
Additional personnel: Josh Freese (drums).
Two finds vocalist Alex Band and instrumentalist Aaron Kamin ditching their peripheral Calling brethren in favor of going it alone. It's also the follow-up to Camino Palmero, their impossibly successful debut that featured the lite FM hit "Wherever You Will Go." That song's formula is revisited repeatedly here, as Band and Kamin unleash a neutered firestorm of MOR rock. "Our Lives," "Things Will Go My Way," and "Chasing the Sun" all drift straightforwardly between Matchbox Twenty and U2, incorporating elements of both but rarely making much of an impression beyond a resigned sigh. The late-album entry "Dreaming in Red" offers a bit of sass, but not enough to scare anyone. Two should help the Calling keep whatever fans it made with Camino Palmero. ~ Johnny Loftus
Relax, America: the Calling has taken up the marshmallow gauntlet. Horning in on the country's desire for a new, homegrown Savage Garden, vocalist Alex Band and instrumentalist Aaron Kamin have ditched all peripheral Calling personnel and any semblance of individual craft for Two, the follow-up to "Wherever You Will Go" and Camino Palmero, their impossibly successful 2001 debut. Working once again with producer Marc Tanner -- he of beige fare like Vonray and the Smallville soundtrack -- Band and Kamin shed sensitive tears on the sandy ground between U2 balladry and Matchbox Twenty, emulating both but never adding enough of anything to be memorable or personal. "Is there love tonight/When everyone's dreaming," Band emotes on "Our Lives." "We've got to believe that/There's a reason we're here." Sonically, the track is a third-generation rewrite of the Matchbox hit "Real World," but its lyrics are so face-meltingly opaque, it makes Rob Thomas look like Rob Zombie. During their brief late-'90s reign, Savage Garden had a few blooms of genuine light rock songcraft ("Truly Madly Deeply" being a prime example). Even if the sound danced delicately with the maudlin, the group's intent for Air Supply greatness was genuine and true. With the Calling, there's no passion, nor any attempt to add even a bubble of individualism to the foamy spume of non-threatening MOR. From "Chasing the Sun" ("She's like a sweet summer") to "Anything" ("Where your fire burns/In a city of angels"), there's only the fallow soil of strip-mined Bono karaoke. Later, there's the mildly switched-up jangle of "Dreaming in Red" and "Surrender." They're probably the best thing Two has to offer -- Band and Kamin manage some sass and brash feeling -- but that only gets them closer to Lifehouse's vapor trails. The Calling: the alternative to having an opinion. ~ Johnny Loftus
In 2002, the Calling came seemingly from out of nowhere to dominate the radio airwaves with its post-grunge ballad "Wherever You Will Go," helping the group's debut, CAMINO PALMERO, to become one of the best-selling albums of that year. In 2004, the Los Angeles group returned with TWO, the band whittled down to two founding members, vocalist Alex Band and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Kamin. Despite the attrition, the record continues the lush, airy, power-ballad sound the group displayed on its initial offering. Band and Kamin clearly soaked in the alternative radio sound of the 1990s, employing elements of Pearl Jam, U2, and Matchbox Twenty, while obviously also attuned to the love-song stylings of Savage Garden. Together, they craft sincere songs for those both tortured and freed by love, tunes that will undoubtedly further their already wide appeal.