More Radio-Friendly Gomez On "A New Tide"

Gomez and I go way back. Back to about 1999, which makes it an even decade now. That was the year I came across their breakthrough and Mercury Prize winning debut Bring It On in a pile of CDs that included Wilco's Being There, Soul Coughing's El Oso and one from Limp Bizkit. There was a lot of pop on the radio then. Indie rock was just starting to grab people's attention, and Gomez caught mine.

I'd describe it as an infatuation. My favorite thing about the album was that it was caked with the weirdest noises. Things were stretched, distorted, saturated, and then calmed with vocal harmonies on songs like "Tijuana Lady." Songs sounded everything from folksy, to bluesy to electronic - all coming together in one jubilee of melody. The energy of an early Gomez album left one thought in mind: "Sounds like they had a good time making this." Some songs like "Get Myself Arrested," Abandon Shopping Trolley Hotline's "Bring Your Lovin' Back Here," In Our Gun's "Detroit Swing 66" are straight-up parties in the ear.

2006's How We Operate got Gomez a lot of radio play. They added a little more ooohs and aaahs to the mix, which caught the attention of the adult contemporary crowd. In contrast, while doing well in the US, it was one of the poorest showings for the band in their native UK. It can somewhat be labeled as their US breakthrough, which follows the band's UK breakthrough with Bring It On a decade ago.

Whoever writes the song sings it is the general rule of thumb involved for Gomez when making an album.

Now spread across two continents, between Brooklyn and Brighton Beach, the band created their six studio album for the most part virtually. Each song was written by an individual member of the band then put together online, followed by stops in both a Charlottesville and Chicago recording studio.

Gomez have succeeded to pick up where How We Operate left off with this new one. Two songs stand out as the band's most TV-soundtrack-friendly (last album's "See The World" and title-track were featured on House and Grey's Anatomy respectively) - "Airstream Driver" and "Little Pieces," which in comparison to each other are completely different. "Airstream Driver," offered as a free download months ago via the band's Web site, is hands-down the album's most return to old school Gomez and the best song on the album for that matter, starting off with rock n roll guitar, layers of percussion, a little country swagger, bass that sounds like it belongs on an electronica album, before it turns alll lovey dovey with the vocals. Schizophrenic to the point of ecstasy is one way you coudl describe it.

The multiple personalities of Gomez don't only come into play in the instrumentation but in the tempo as well. On "Lost Track" crooner Ben Ottewell, whose rasp is often compared to Tom Waits, sings to his own tune while step-in cellist Oliver Krauss (David Grey, Beth Orton) delivers harrowing strings at his own pace. The same thing happens in the Ian Ball tune "Win Park Slope," which also includes backup vocals from Stars' Amy Milan.

"Sunset Gates," the album's folksy album closer starts with deep timpani reverberations yet ends with a full on My Bloody Valentine -esque shoe-gaze jam.

With How We Operate and even that one's predecessor Split the Difference falling in love with a Gomez album took some time, some extra spins before it found a special place in your heart. It didn't come as quickly as the earlier work. Same goes for A New Tide. While recommended it comes nowhere to the carefree nature of those early albums.