There's no getting around the fact that Calla's biggest selling point (or dealbreaker, depending on your stance) is their stalwart fixation on the melancholy. On early albums, the band sowed the seeds of that bleakness in songs devoid of ear-grabbing hooks or lofty climaxes, relying instead on more oblique methods of emotional venting. However, continuing to up the emotive ante set by 2005's surprisingly accessible Collisions, the band's new album, Strength in Numbers, goes straight for the jugular-- if not the heartstrings-- by wrapping more ideas around Calla's ambient, moody backbone than ever before.
Although their earlier material exuded a similar despair, the band experimented with its sound rather than begged for attention. But Strength in Numbers can't hide the heart on its sleeve, framing frontman Aurelio Valle's tortured vocals in conspicuous verse/chorus/verse dynamics. On "Sanctify", the record's opener, Valle bares his teeth, snarling with a sense of hurt and disgust straight out of Trent Reznor's diary-- and the band follows suit, soaring on an epic riff that falls somewhere between "Hell's Bells" and "White Wedding". But between shoegaze-y soundscapes, Calla also experiment with ideas that lead surprising byproducts like the Nirvana-tinged "Simone" or the Surfer Rosa-styled acoustic pop of "Bronson".
In between these extremes the band finds a comfortable niche, embellishing straightforward dirges with predictable reverb splashes and murky vocals. Valle's Elliott Smith inclinations on Collisions re-emerge even stronger here-- hushed tracks like "Sleep in Splendor" and "Rise" subsist almost solely on dark acoustic chord changes and breathy vocals. "Stand Paralyzed" stretches this sound, adding hints of lazy neo-psychedelia à la the Dandy Warhols or Brian Jonestown Massacre.
But while their songwriting's sharpened, the overall mood of the album still grates after a while, and not just because depression is inherently tiring. Much of Numbers feels melancholy-by-numbers, so melodies seem recycled, riffs feel tedious, and the emotional register dampens. It could just be a case of feeling too much with the brain and not the heart, but Calla's infinite sadness feels too premeditated to provide the raw blow to the gut it ought to deliver.
