A welcome presence from rock’s recent past has reemerged with the release of “Welcome to My World” by ‘80s American band The Call, a previously unreleased track featuring the deeply missed voice of the late Michael Been. The song is vintage Call, a sweeping hook laid atop a driving rhythm, making it music worthy of both dancing and listening.

The song is part of “The Lost Tapes” collection, which gathers assorted tracks from The Call’s career that, for whatever reason, never made it onto one of the band’s nine studio albums. The Call’s three surviving members — Jim Goodwin, Tom Ferrier, and Scott Musick — are presently overseeing a Kickstarter campaign to not only bring previously unheard music to light but also remaster and rerelease on both vinyl and CD the band’s 1986 album “Reconciled” along with 1987's “Into The Woods.”

The Call took the idea that you can say anything as long as it has a good beat that you can dance to and pushed it to its breaking point. The rhythms were simple but intense; the riffs uncomplicated yet searing. Michael Been’s vocals were as passionate as it gets, spitting out angry societal examinations or spiritual exhortations with equal fervor. Perhaps this is why The Call never reached the mass audience it deserved. Whereas they were in similar musical territory to U2, while their Irish counterparts featured chime and chorus, The Call were more cudgel and crunch. They were too unapologetically intense at what they did to click with the bland masses' preference for everything to be on a more simplistic plane. U2 sang of what can happen to humanity when it follows the correct path to heaven. The Call did the same, yet it also reminded humanity of what can occur when it continues on its usual downward trend.

The Call came close twice to breaking through to mass acceptance, first in 1983 with "The Walls Came Down" off of the "Modern Romans" album.

"I Still Believe (Great Design)" from 1986's "Reconciled" drew some airplay.

The title track from 1989's "Let The Day Begin" reached #1 on Billboard's US Mainstream Rock chart.

Unfortunately, the band never quite got over the hump. Been passed away in 2010 from a heart attack, forever relegating The Call to a status of fervently loved by the faithful but having no chance at receiving its deserved recognition.

The Call's Kickstarter campaign made its funding goal the day of its launch, indicating the band's fans remain loyal. One can only hope this is a beginning to giving The Call's catalog a proper treatment. The band's first three albums have never been released on CD and are presently unavailable digitally or on any streaming service. There have been a handful of retrospective releases containing some of the material, but most of these are now out of print and difficult to track down.

For existing fans, hearing new Call music is an unexpected treat. For the uninitiated, there is no better place to start than with the words from Michael Been's cautionary anthem "You Run."

You may find a better way
You may find the reason for it all
Say you walked on holy ground
Say you heard the sweetest sound of all
But you find out that you never really cared
And you find out that you have no love to share at all

So you challenge everyone you meet
Crying out to fill a void in you
What are you running from My love
Whats this thing you're guilty of
Follow Me and never feel accused
But you never do believe a word I say
And you never did believe there'd be a day of reckoning

[Chorus]
So you run and you run and you run
And you never stop
And you work and you work and you work
Until you drop
You're in over your head and the pressure just don't quit
But you can't escape the reach of love