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The first thing you notice about “The Call” is the production. Modern bubblegum differs from its predecessor most seriously in this: that the production is at least three-quarters of the point, if not more. The point for ‘70s bubblegum svengalis Kasenetz and Katz was not the overall production sound; they thought about that quite a bit, of course, especially with respect to the vocals, but their main thing was the formula. What shines through in most K + K productions is their soul-deep conviction that each attempt to write a pop song is a doomed Platonic lunge toward the world of the Forms, where every type exists as its own flawless ideal. “The Call,” though, is hardly even a song at all. It is a sketch for a song, or a work in progress; it is a series of notes made by a person or persons who will someday write the single pop song that will end pop songs forever, and as the product of such a person or persons it gives off sparks of genius, but the song itself is not The Song. It is an apprentice’s piece whose main concern is the question of structure. | |||
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