You don't get the kind of publicity Gomez got right out of the gate too often, beating out the likes of The Verve and Massive Attack for Britain's highly presitgious Mercury Prize for their debut album, a home recorded gem, Bring It On. How they followed up that success for their second album would largely shape the rest of their careers.
From the way all of their albums have been put together, you can tell Gomez likes the art of putting together an album. Many bands these days put together a cohesive album by just making everything sound exactly the same (see, for example, Band of Horses' first album) and others eschew an epic album on its own right, just having catchy songs and then some filler to fill in the gaps (think the classic, but highly uneven Sixteen Stone). Gomez has never taken either route, putting together albums that are simulataneously all over the map while still forming a cohesive whole. Nowhere is that more evident than on Liquid Skin. The album ranges from The dazzlingly beautiful We Haven't Turned Around, to the jammed out rocker, California and everything in between.
The first thing to notice with Gomez is what an odd collection of elements they are. Olly Peacock is probably the most underrated drummer in indie pop rock today. These days pop-rock bands generally avoid "busy" drummers, but Gomez didn't go that route. Few pop-rock drummers play as much as Olly Peacock does and few are as inventive as he is. This would seem to go smack in the face of the often times delta blues influenced arrangements, but somehow it works perfectly together. Then you have the guitaristry of Gomez. Make no mistake, Gomez is a guitar band. Their songs are as much about the guitar as Metallica's are, but in a wholly different way. Three band members play guitar (Ian Ball, Tom Gray and Ben Ottwell), but they are about as far from Lynyrd Skynyrd as two bands who both have three guitarists and were influenced by the blues can be. You will rarely ever find a guitar solo on a Gomez album and that is the case here. There are a few riffs that border on a guitar solo, but there is not a single bonafide guitar solo anywhere on the album. What Gomez lacks in virtuosity, they make up for in knowing how to perfectly arrange guitar parts together and within the overall song. If the measure of a truly great guitar line is being unable to imagine the song with any guitar line other than what was played, Gomez has that in spades.
The bass of Blackie (Paul Blackburn) is there and it does what its supposed to do, hold the often free wheeling drumming in place, which is what you would expect for a non-prog rock indie-pop-rock band with a busy drummer. All three guitarists (Gray often plays keys and the occasional bass line) also sing. Ben Ottwell has by far the most distinctive vocals of the group, an absolutely perfectly soulful raspy voice that is what John Bell of Widespread Panic wishes he sounded like. It would be a mistake however to ignore the other vocalists, as Ball and Gray more than capably hold their own vocally. The band is at their best when they are harmonizing and alternating vocal duties within the same song. They don't hold to a single type of harmonizing, varying from harmonies reminiscent of The Eagles perfectly overlapped harmonies to the clearly distinct but complimentary harmonies of The Band.
With such varied elements, you'd expect Gomez to have a distinct sound and be able to cover a wide range of musical area, which is exactly what they do both over their careers (from the rocking Split the Difference, to the electronic In Our Gun, to the whimsical Bring It On, etc) and on this album.
The album kicks off with Hangover, a song that is both fun and very pretty in parts. Sung by both Ottwell and Ball, its not a spectacular song, but a very, very good song. A song in praise of a woman who is there for you after a long night of partying, it sets the mood of the album and shows a lot of the elements that will keep resurfacing throughout the album.
Next up is Revolutionary Kind. A Ben Ottwell sung tune, it continues the meandering fun of Hangover. It picks up steam at the end and turns into an almost dance song.
The third track, Bring It On, oddly the title of the previous album, sees the band breaking loose a bit. Much like the previous track the song starts slowly, building throughout the song in energy until the end of the song could be an entirely different song. Ball and Ottwell trade vocal duties throughout the track, ending with them both yelling the refrain.
At 4 we find Blue Moon Rising. Similar in structure to Bring It On, but with nice, funky guitar lines (both acoustic and highly distorted electric). Not the greatest song, but still fun, and as far as a filler song, its really good.
Las Vegas Dealer is up next. It features a lot of harmonies and a quirky interlude piano piece. This song is a lot of fun in its own right, but its primary purpose is to break up the first third of the album from the second third. Gomez does this a lot on their albums, which can typically be divided up thematically in thirds by quirky fun songs serving as the transition points.
Thus far the album has been full of good songs, but hasn't seen a truly great song. However, We Haven't Turned Around is a truly, breathtakingly, hauntingly, beautiful song. This is one of those songs where everything about it is absolutely perfect. Usually a song can delve in to useless schlog with the addition of a cello. Generally, its just a sellout move and only serves to detract from the song. But occasionally, on a truly beautiful song, it makes the song. And that's the case here. Quite possibly if Ben Ottwell was born to sing a single song, it was this song. Its never clear exactly what the lyrics are about, but they fit so perfectly with the mood of the song that it doesn't really matter. The lyrics aren't there to tell a story, they're there to convey pure emotion and they do that perfectly. A lot of bands would have opted for more underwhelming percussion on such a beautiful song, but Gomez rightly let Olly do his thing and it paid off with beautfully complimentary drum lines that interact just right with the rest of the instruments and the song as a whole. Musical moments just don't come much better than the crashing return to the chorus at 3:47. You wouldn't think that a heavily distorted guitar could fit so well, but it just does. There are a lot of elements about this song that should be too over the top or that just don't fit, but amazingly everything is just right. For a band that self-produced this album, the fact that everything is just perfect is a true testimony to their talent.
Just when the band might be slipping in to taking itself too seriously (think Coldplay) they hit you with the fun little jaunt of Fill My Cup. Nothing particularly remarkable, just an enjoyable little song that breaks up the emotion of We Haven't Turned Around.
Rhythym and Blues Alibi is a dancibly pretty song. The song is held together by a great guitar riff and the guitaristry of the song is fantastic throughout. Ian Ball's vocals are right on point.
Rosalita is one of the more underrated songs on the album. While most of the songs on this album don't tell a story as much as invoke feelings, Rosalita tells a coherent story. Lyrically, its filled with great lines such as "Since you left me its your flag I'm flying/ but I'm sick of crying/why did you chose to deceive me?/was your plan just to kiss, fuck and leave me, so considerately?" The interaction between Ottwell's crooning, the clean guitar jangle and the gentle percussion are just right for the song. The song features the closest thing to a guitar solo you'll find on the album, but its more of tasteful riffing than an actual guitar solo. That is one thing Ben Ottwell is really great at, laying on the verge of great riffs and a solo. His playing is always so connected to the song that its hard to call it a solo, but noteworthy enough that its not rhythym playing either. Thematically its the beginning of the final third.
California is one of the band's fans' most beloved songs. It sees the band stretch out, but not into noodling. The spacy song is headphone rock at its best. With just a dynamite guitar riff that lets the song change moods in an instant from etheral moodiness to straightforward rocking to psychadelia and somehow it all seems to not only work, but be just right. At 4:54 to 5:58 the song just soars, propelled by Olly Peacock's drumming, a wonderful guitar line and Ottwell's vocals. The song then closes with a psychadelic sing-a-long.
The closer, Devil Will Ride, takes all the normal closing touches, a soft opening with the words "bye-bye", a funky sing-a-long, big horns and a really pretty, soaring bridge and throws them all together, and again, it somehow comes out working. Like a lot of Gomez songs, especially on this album, you can listen to this song 20 times and each time pick up some perfect subtle little element that just works so well.
While I love their other albums, there is a pretty compelling argument that Gomez were much better producers themselves than when they worked with anyone else. This album has such tasteful playing by all the members, the sounds of all the instruments and the vocals are just so right on, everything is arranged so well that it lets them lay it all out and go for things that probably should not have worked, but did.
4.9/5
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