As equitable as the arrangement might be, it’s also completely unnecessary: The three artists sound so similar that I didn’t realize multiple people were covering the lead until I watched the music video.
![king calaway world for two king calaway world for two](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/fd/7d/57/fd7d5731d04283341ea7c000bd040734.jpg)
The group lists three different members (Jordan Harvey, Chad Jervis, and Simon Dumas) as lead vocalists, but Harvey and Dumas do most of the heavy lifting here, each getting a verse to themselves while Jervis is left closing the choruses by himself. I can’t blame them too much for their cautious approach (visceral reactions like SCM’s coming out even before their music dropped seems to justify the move), but I’m more than allowed to be bored by it. The mix is standard “lightweight love song” fare, and almost seems afraid to be anything more than that. As it is, it’s got a bright, positive sound and a pretty decent groove, but its utter lack and power and volume keep it from generating any energy or momentum as it goes along, and it doesn’t have anything to make it stand out from its competition and entice the listener to pay attention. It’s as if everyone involved with this project anticipated the blowback from creating a country version of the Backstreet Boys, and were trying to make their sound as non-threatening as possible to try to mitigate the problem. The production is even more safe and milquetoast than you’d expect: Bright acoustic guitars with a light touch, the cleanest, slickest electric guitars providing some simple chord work, a few piano notes to indicate the depth of the narrator’s feelings, and a barely-there clap track with absolutely zero punch. I wouldn’t go rush out and buy a ticket for these guys, but I wouldn’t call up Paul Revere and sic the dogs on the sextet yet either.
![king calaway world for two king calaway world for two](https://media.giphy.com/media/88irxRuUcUQ1qZ9Fij/100.gif)
The reality, as it often is, lies somewhere in the middle: The band is a inoffensive, middle-of-the-road “Dan + Shay + 4” soundalike that blends seamlessly into the rest of the forgettable lightweight material on the radio these days. Their website brands them as a “multi-national supergroup” whose members “aren’t looking to blend into the crowd,” while SCM labels them a “manufactured boy band” that is “hopscotching hundreds of more worthy entertainers” on to way to a nationwide single release. My fellow Kyle over at Saving Country Music has been banging the drums of war for months now over King Calaway, the latest creation from the mad scientist labs of Music Row to hit the airwaves. Hey look, another molehill that we made into a mountain.