Camino Palmero by The Calling

Camino Palmero, the Calling's debut, came out on RCA on July 10, 2001, named for the Los Angeles street where singer Alex Band and guitarist Aaron Kamin first crossed paths. It's earnest, big-shouldered post-grunge, heavy on grunge-era crunch and unashamed guitar solos, with Band's husky, straining voice selling songs about love, heartache, fraying relationships and loyalty handed to the wrong people. The sleeve, oddly, shows platforms 5 and 6 at Florence's Santa Maria Novella station.

"Wherever You Will Go" did the heavy lifting, sitting atop the Adult Top 40 for 23 weeks and later named that chart's number-one song of the 2000s. Critics sneered at the lyrics and the familiarity of it all, though even they gave the arrangements and Band's singing their due. The public didn't care: the album went platinum.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.