Who? 

If you're asking that question: The Call were a band who were moderately successful in the 1980s. Only moderately successful, but respected by both critics and musicians to a greater degree than their general popularity would indicate. If my memory is correct, which it may not be, I heard of them because there was a brief period in the late '80s when we subscribed to cable TV, and I sometimes watched MTV late at night--a guilty pleasure, because I detested MTV on principle. There I heard a song which became at least a minor hit, "Let the Day Begin." Here's the fuzzy "official video" which must be the one I saw:

I liked the song enough to buy the album, also called Let the Day Begin (1989), which is a bit surprising because I didn't have a lot of "disposable income" at the time. It wasn't a disappointment, even though the cover is a bit off-putting.

As I mentioned a month or two ago, I sometimes knowingly and unapologetically act on prejudice. I realized in my youth that sometimes the cover art of an album had a definite effect on my reaction to the music. The very nicest thing I can say about this cover is that it's dull. The worst...well, it certainly never would have tempted me to buy it. Could someone not have come up with something more imaginative? 

But the music is very good, very straightforward rock: vocals, guitar, bass, drum, keyboards, without instrumental fireworks--no flashy screaming guitar solos, no keyboard acrobatics, no complex vocal spectacles. In fact it's so straightforward that it's hard to describe. It's not heavy, not folky, not bluesy, not goth, not industrial, not punk, not post-punk, not new wave, not indie, not psychedelic, not anything musically that specifically ties it to the 1980s (though maybe the haircuts do) . It's not hard rock, but it rocks hard. It's also really well produced and recorded, with a very big sound.

To pick one adjective as description: it's intense. Most of it is up-tempo and driving, and even the slower songs are passionate. The guy more or less in the center of that picture, Michael Been, seems to have been the source of the passion. He's the vocalist, bass player, and main songwriter. Although his voice is not as striking as, say, Bono's (to pick another band popular at the time) it's very powerful and expressive. 

And, always a major plus for me, even a necessity (with exceptions for a few special cases like the Cocteau Twins), the lyrics are well-crafted and substantial. I saw one of their albums in someone's list of Top 25 Christian albums, which is a bit surprising but not inappropriate, as most of the lyrics deal explicitly or implicitly with matters of spiritual depth and often seem to come from a clearly Christian point of view. The cover of Reconciled (1986) may or may not be intended to suggest the idea of being born again:

Whether or not that's the case, the first track, "Everywhere I Go," certainly seems to be addressed to God, and is very much in the tradition of Christian devotional language:

The back cover is a grim picture of a tornado touching down on a very flat landscape. Perhaps it's Oklahoma, as described in the song "Oklahoma," which is an account of a tornado which becomes a sort of apocalypse in which it seems that "the hearts of many are laid bare."

Tornado hit and the roof gave way
Tornado hit and all we could do was pray
How was I to know what I was to think?
How was I to know what I was to feel?

Been was from Oklahoma and so may have been describing something he actually saw.

I'm discussing these three albums more or less in the order in which I heard them, not the order in which they were released.  The cover of Into the Woods (1987) is so much more attractive than those of the other two that I fully expected it to be my favorite of the three, perhaps fulfilling what seemed to be the promise of the others, with a cohesive work on the Dantean theme suggested by both cover and title.

That turned out not to be the case--at least so far. Overall, I don't find the songs to be quite as appealing as most of those on the other two albums, and the theme suggested by the title is not consistently pursued. But my view of the songs is probably just my personal taste--I can't say they are any less well-crafted--and I like half of them as much as I do anything on the other two. The first track, for instance:

Is that as good as anything U2 ever recorded? I say yes. Another comparison with U2 comes to mind: I think a lot of their music is great, as good as rock music gets, but I've never liked any of their albums in their entirety--they're always a mixed bag for me. But these three by The Call are remarkably consistent; there are, to my taste, no tracks that might as well not be there.

They released several other albums, none of which I've heard, and one of them, Red Moon, is said by the reviewer at AllMusic to be their best. So I'll give that one a listen sometime.

Looking around on the web for information I kept running across descriptions like "underrated," "highly regarded," "critical favorite," and the like, the sort of things people say about bands that deserve more attention than they get. The most emphatic of these is at a site dedicated to the band, which is not shy about saying "THE CALL is possibly the most underrated band in the history of music." Well, I don't know, maybe they are. Anyway, if you've never heard them, and you like the tracks I've posted, it's pretty certain that you won't regret investigating them further.

Michael Been died of a heart attack in 2010. His son, Robert Been, is part of a band called Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, of whose music I've heard enough to want to hear more. Here's a video of BRMC performing "I Don't Wanna." Notice that R. Been is also a singer and bass player.