Into the Woods

by The Call

Product Description:

The Call includes: Michael Been (vocals, guitar, bass); Tom Ferrier (guitar, background vocals); Jim Goodwin (keyboards, background vocals).

Producers: The Call, Don Smith, Michael Been.

Recorded at A & M, One On One, Rumbo and Conway Studios, Los Angeles, California.

One of The Call's most highly regarded recordings, INTO THE WOODS achieves the perfect synthesis of Michael Been's passionate, preacher-on-the-pulpit vocals and the group's churning, riff-happy drive. It's also probably the least overtly political album in the Call oeuvre. Been's lyrics concentrate more on personal politics and emotional turbulence than social issues, and the songs are correspondingly more powerful because of the thematic shift. The Christian tenets that lie beneath the surface of much Call music are invested here with a provocative mix of faith and rage, with highly visceral results.

"In the River" successfully mixes baptism, death, war, childhood, and good old natural disaster over bluesy guitar and Been's snaky bass line. "I Don't Wanna" explores the extremes of emotional commitment, buoyed by anthemic backing, while mythology and poetic imagery make for a mysterious vignette in "The Woods." After all the Sturm und Drang, things close on a lighter note with "Walk Walk," an uptempo boogie that delivers an open-hearted romantic invitation.