Gomez: Totally irrelevant

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Mercury Prize winner in 1998.

New album (In My Gun) was pretty good.

Does anyone care anymore?

Don Weiner, Friday, 9 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

gomez have a pretty rotten reputation, from what i hear, in the uk - probably from being exposed to the public on videos, where they come across like prettyboy posers. here in canada, though, most of those who know them love them - Bring It On, at least. In Our Gun blew goats - all they had going for them as the bluesy soul, and with that stripped away, it's just pretty layered noise - so i don't know what to think any more. liked liquid skin.

Sean, Friday, 9 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's the fact that they seem much happier getting stoned and wanking muso blues licks onto each others' faces rather than writing pop songs with hooks and things that pisses a lot of people off. Liquid Skin was almost entirely devoid of fun for me, apart from the last four minutes of the last tune when the Philly horns come in.

The first album was Ok, but now they really do come across as indulgent student wankers.

Nick Southall, Saturday, 10 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like 'em! "In Our Gun" underwhelmed me at first, but after a few plays I'm really into it.

Sean, Saturday, 10 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooring!

weasel diesel (K1l14n), Saturday, 10 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I hate the first album.. "Get Myself Arrested" is one of the most obnoxious, annoying songs ever. Ditto "Rhythm & Blues Alibi" - but the rest of Liquid Skin makes up for it. In Our Gun has some fine moments. Actually, the more people slag it off, the more I realise how much I do like it (the Pitchfork review being a prime example).

EdwardO, Saturday, 10 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

All their albums contain 2 or 3 severe duds. But I like 'em all the same.

gazuga, Saturday, 10 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i cant over the Chris Rea similarity, but then sometimes....i like it

, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

nine years pass...

getting stoned and wanking muso blues licks

The bedrock of rock and roll, that. When do Gomez sound like this, exactly? The stuff I heard sounded like Charlatans if Charlatans happened upon a stack of old No Depression back issues and started singing like the dude from Widespread Panic.

If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Monday, 16 January 2012 01:17 (thirteen years ago) link

six years pass...

Almost forgot about them but “win park slope” and “sound of sounds” are a +

big C (calstars), Saturday, 24 March 2018 04:54 (six years ago) link

Ten posts in fifteen years, plus this thread title = the coldest of burns.

startled macropod (MatthewK), Saturday, 24 March 2018 05:05 (six years ago) link

And yet there's a four disc reissue of the debut about to come out.

Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 March 2018 05:09 (six years ago) link

https://media.giphy.com/media/9sJ3z81ZpUxJC/giphy.gif

velko, Saturday, 24 March 2018 05:20 (six years ago) link

The music press pretty much got Gomez wrong from the off, seeming to collectively think they were some kind of lo-fi neo-blues band on the first LP, when really they were (initially) cut from the same cloth as the likes of the Beta Band etc.

I found their debut to be quite overrated - even at the time - but find a lot to enjoy on Liquid Skin and In Our Gun, while the Machismo EP and Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline compilation showcase more of their exploratory side.

Split the Difference and How We Operate are their last good records, and by the latter they'd pretty much got rid of the experimental elements and tried to write a bunch of folky pop songs.

Everything after that has been garbage.

Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Saturday, 24 March 2018 08:42 (six years ago) link

4 discs o_o

MatthewK on the money.

Liquid Skin is bloody excellent holiday music.

Ludo, Saturday, 24 March 2018 10:52 (six years ago) link

Liquid Skin has some excellent summer jams (especially Rhythm & Blues alibi). I’m a big fan of all of the Gomez albums... Seeing them in April in Brighton. The Gomez fan community is still surprisingly strong and they always put on a great and energetic live performance with everyone singing along to everything. Sometimes they just let the crowd sing the entirety of Make No Sound.

tangenttangent, Saturday, 24 March 2018 13:44 (six years ago) link

But best album is obviously Tom Gray’s soundtrack to the children’s picture book ‘Shoe Baby’.

tangenttangent, Saturday, 24 March 2018 13:45 (six years ago) link


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