at a glance...

Hometown: Southport, England
Formed: 1996

Members:
Ian Ball -vocals, guitar, harmonica
Paul Blackburn -bass, vocals
Tom Gray -vocals, guitar, keyboards
Ben Ottewell -vocals, guitar
Olly Peacock -drums, percussion

Notes:
Gomez got their act together in a garage outside Liverpool, recording much of their debut album Bring It On before they even played a gig together. Once Hut released the record, however, interest in the group snowballed. Met with stellar reviews in the British music press, "Bring It On" sucker-punched the competition to snag the Mercury Music Prize, Britain's cred-boosting album of the year award. After doing lots of interviews where they slagged other bands for being boring, they recorded their follow-up album Liquid Skin in six different studios, including Abbey Road.

Strategically, Liquid Skin is a perfect second album -- it's a lot like Bring It On but goes a bit farther in every direction. The headphone texture of this record is amazing, from the three-part vocal gnip-gnop of "Bring It On" (the song, not the album) to the sitars, bongos, and techno sounds lurking all over the place to the "Hey Jude" singalong that closes "Devil Will Ride." This is a band intent on proving that it can do everything and anything; if Bring It On was a gumbo of styles, genres, and references, Liquid Skin is a smorgasbord. "Las Vegas Dealer" sounds like three songs in four time signatures before the song is even at the 1:30 mark, and it's tame next to "California" and "Fill My Cup," which has about seven different endings just to show off.

Gomez are on a mission to prove that they are the "Revolutionary Kind," that other bands are just "chasin' after stories that have already been told" (from the album's best song, "Rhythm & Blues Alibi"), and they pull it off nicely. But I miss the songs. The dirty little secret of Bring It On was that it was jam-packed with really good songs, and Liquid Skin isn't as interested in that. There is still beautiful stuff here, to be sure; if "We Haven't Turned Around" doesn't pull your heart out, then you're a robot and you deserve all the Mariah Carey you get. But the sound and the ideas are more important than the tunes and words here, which means Liquid Skin isn't quite the devastating home run Gomez wants so desperately to hit. Instead, it's a solid triple into the left-field corner from a group that may be headed for the Hall of Fame. Play it loud. Don't sleep on Gomez.