I Called I by Desmond Drive features the strange combination of Woody Allen-like intensive self-examination — sometimes in the form of spoken word bits from an aptly named Greek Chorus — and melodic, yet no less equally internalized, pop-rock songs. Such ingredients sometimes beg the nervous question: Is this just music, or full-on music therapy?
Vocalist Bill Shaouy starts this project off on a serious note with “Two-Headed Beast”, where he refers to himself as, “this strange thing I called “I””. Its lyric, however, goes on to produce the impression that male/female attraction is a knowable thing, or at least a halfway understandable concept. Keen insight is provided with knowing lines like: “But love reflects what I don’t see/More than a mirror does.” Yet during the very next song, “Poker Face”, such comprehension is seemingly tossed to the wind. “’Cause I read in a magazine/That love is just a game of cards/And if I tip my hand, I give away/My only chance to win your heart.” Let’s hope Shaouy doesn’t gullibly believe everything he reads because a heart is far too vital to simply gamble away and lose in some sort of casino of life.
Desmond Drive is at its best when things are kept to their aural basics. It’s impossible, for instance, not to warm up to “Goodbye”, which skips to a sweet, jingle-jangle guitar part and a spot-on harmony straight out of the Mammas & the Papas’ How-To-Do-Group-Singing-Right book. Apparently, McGuinn and McGuire are still getting higher, vicariously through Desmond Drive. This four-piece – which also features Rob Gal (guitars), Steve Platnick (bass), and Chuck Kelly (drums) – gets a bit precious on songs like “Simple Things”, however. Shaouy’s voice is just a little too choir boy perfect to pass for a legitimate rock & roll singer. Even pop-rock, which is the style combination this band presumably loves best, requires equal doses of beauty and beast, but I Called I often focuses too much attention on being beatific, when it could have used a few more balancing beastly moments.
While it’s the toe-tapping sound that often attracts the listener first, there are also examples of fine lyricism on I Called I. One such word standout is found with “Happy Tollbooth Guy”. This song takes the unlikely tactic of getting inside the head of a tollbooth operator — if such a thing is even possible. On the one hand, this solitary man “doesn’t mind his island.” However, “oh, the life in his head.” These words suggest that even the simplest laborer can have an exotic life inside the limitless confines of his mind. And that’s good news for the mayor (and residents) of Simpelton.
Desmond Drive can get a little too precious lyrically too, however, just as it does with its over-perfected musical vibe. Shaouy begins “My Will” by stating: “It’s good to read, it’s good to learn/It’s good to love every page that you turn.” And while literary-inspired rock is always welcome in the many-times Philistine world of rock & roll, this stating of the obvious veers dangerously close to a Sesame Street song of encouragement. It’s always better to let the listener guess which books you read, rather than telling them that you actually read.
One can’t help but wonder what Desmond Drive would sound like if Shaouy ever took up a two-pack a day habit and a steady listening diet of AC/DC music. Maybe this would toughen the band up enough to get taken a little more seriously. I Called I is quite good, for certain, but it could be even better.
Reviewed By Dan MacIntosh
