THE CALLS have announced the video for MAY DAY, the third track – following LOST ART OF ROMANCE and WHAT CAN YOU DO – to be taken from their forthcoming six-track debut mini album, THE NIGHT THE WORLD STOOD STILL, due to be released on Atomic Records on 7 September.
To coincide with the release, the band will play just two exclusive live shows: a headline date in their home city of Leeds at the Lending Room on Saturday 15 September; and a headline date in Leeds’ twin city Dortmund.
Having released the exhilarating WATERFRONT single and the defiant GARAGELAND EP – recorded and produced with Keiron Melling from The Fall and Mickey Dale of Embrace respectively – THE CALLS took time to reflect and realised that, whilst being rightly proud of those recordings, it was perhaps time to leave them behind. By being honest with themselves, by allowing their personal satisfaction to come to the fore, and by moving subtly into areas of music and production that excited them, they took that time since the EP release to formulate a different avenue, augmented by experimentation with film and backdrops to create a new visual outlook.
It’s not quite THE CALLS Mk II – the energy, the attitude, the confidence, the brash catch-you-off-guard rhythm changes all remain – but this is the sound of a band moving on; fusing their creativity with a love of rhythm and melody to create new and swirling, exhilarating sounds.
The first fruits of this came with the release of LOST ART OF ROMANCE and WHAT CAN YOU DO earlier this year and now MAY DAY: further evidence of a band constantly pushing themselves; constantly evolving; constantly embracing and establishing new sounds – often psychedelic, always creative – sounds that reveal something that may be familiar but one that doesn’t sound like anyone else. The Calls always, defiantly, sound like The Calls.
Having carefully fine-tuned these songs with recent support shows to the likes of THE HUBBARDS, GLASS CAVES and TOM HINGLEY of the INSPIRAL CARPETS, and a show at the huge Leeds Millennium Square, THE CALLS are now ready to take the next step with the release of their debut mini album.
TRACK LISTING
MAY DAY
WHAT CAN YOU DO
I AM GONE
THE NIGHT THE WORLD STOOD STILL
LOST ART OF ROMANCE
I CAN’T AFFORD IT
THE CALLS, despite their youth, have grown up with a soundtrack that has encompassed Happy Mondays, The Smiths, Radiohead, Babyshambles and Tame Impala; echoes of which may be subtly apparent here and there, but their songs retain a level of intricacy that subtly and often thrillingly swirl over lyrics that, without exception, always have something to say. And that’s a fine combination.
