The Franklin Electric - “Call Me”
It’s very rare that we feature songs that only consist primarily of guitar and vocals, but what The Franklin Electric have done with “Call Me” definitely deserves some real estate on our blog.
Frontman Jon Matte wastes no time here, beginning his exquisite vocal work as soon as you press play. Accompanied by some soothing and flawless finger plucking, Matte offers the listener some extremely raw and honest storytelling from a very vulnerable position, with absolutely no fancy production tricks or autotune. Rumor has it, he recorded the entire thing with his phone while on a trip to Mexico, then finished producing it once he had returned to Montreal.
We have not yet seen the video, but we imagine Matte sitting on some desolate beach, staring at his phone, waiting for a certain someone to call, and writing this song as he waits– all the evidence to support this hypothesis is inside of the lyrics and it is very clear that it doesn’t matter where he is or what he’s doing, he just wants them to call– even if that means simply calling him ‘an asshole.’ And, if you ask us, that is some fantastic penmanship. We are posting the video below (it wasn’t yet available when we wrote this review), so feel free to tell us how close we were.
“Call Me” will rip out your heart if you’re not too careful, but it’s also so comforting that it will replace it with a brand new one. As the song moves on, it picks up a couple instruments and the hook is simply a few falsettos, but this is one for the playlists, people– such a brilliant craft.
-TM