This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - The Call's "The Walls Came Down"

As one of the most consistently underrated great bands of the '80s, highly literate college rock heroes the Call were arguably better than even U2 at righteous, anthemic, thinking man's rock. For one, the band just rocks harder than any of its peers, simultaneously riding the wondrous wave of Michael Been's soaring vocals to what I always felt was a singular peak of accessible (but not too accessible) early alternative rock.

"The Walls Came Down," which generated the group's first substantial airplay in 1983 (though it rose to only a paltry, unjust No. 74 on the pop charts), exemplifies the forward-looking, fiercely critical worldview Been often applied successfully to his lyrics. After all, a whole quarter-century ago, in reference to a Cold War culture gone rather mad, the song accurately predicted the shameful state in which we still find ourselves. I'll shut up and simply let one of '80s music's great lines, taken from this song, say the rest: "I don't think there are any Russians, and there ain't no Yanks. Just corporate criminals playin' with tanks." Just replace "Russians" with whatever country we're likely to bomb next, and it rings all too eerily true.

• Sample or download "The Walls Came Down" here.
• Compare prices on the Call CDs here.
• College Rock Genre Profile
• The Call's Official Website

Album Cover Image Courtesy of Universal Music