Rating: 7.5/10
Modern Music Review
A Brooklyn, NY based band, Calla, was formed in New York City in 1997 by Aurelio Valle. Aurelio Valle's voice give a direction where bittersweet comes. On their fifth studio album "Strength In Numbers" melancholic guitar flowings are moving along smoothly, depressingly like what they used to play before.

With a sharp guitar noise my Calla adventure has started. Like every band i hear, i loved to feel their sad guitars on me. It's like neither sunshine beauty nor a colourful flower's smell. It's another fact substantial on the earth, sorrow. Sorrow isn't a bad feeling at all, sometimes you should be sorrowful in the life to learn something, to deal problems, to survive. People love to be blind about their regret because it shows you as a weak person. In my opinion you should share if you get a chance to tell. You can even share your good or bad feelings with your favorite record. That's why we love music -- To sing a song loudly like a therapy. So Calla's relaxing and plain guitar flow perfectly combines with gloomy songwriting. Totally it's a gloomy record. Although there are great emotional songs in the new Calla work, the songs turn a dull noise from time to time. Slow beats repeat continually themselves. These make "Strength In Numbers" a good but not great record. They play as if they are going to cry. Songs like Le Gusta El Fuego, Sylvia's Song have their own ethereal power that impress the listener strongly.

Some people don't like mournful, deep, ethereal music. On the other hand there are people who love melancholy as a friend. If you want to feel a lonely guitar with a broken voice on you, "Strength In Numbers" may direct you to right way, and it's a good record if you come across from between thousand of rock bands. 20 feb, 2007
MM picks: Sanctify, Rice, Le Gusta El Fuego
mp3: Calla - Sylvia's Song