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Joe's New Music Reviews

Artist: Gomez
Album:  Liquid Skin
Genre: Rock
Similar Bands: Beck, Belle & Sebastian, Gay Dad
Rating: 4 out of 5

Gomez is a British import that has gained small notoriety on the shores of the USA. The reason they are not so well known is that there are no hot chicks or buff pretty boys in the band that would look good in a great MTV video, they are just good musicians. In England, they have gained a sizable audience that has steadily grown since their major label debut album, titled Bring It On,  in 1998. 

Gomez feature an eclectic mix of soft rock, hard rock, psychedelic, blues and folksy music, sung by a grainy-voiced lead vocalist. Meaningful and clear lyrics speak for the band. Their second album, Liquid Skin is just another step up in their musical progression as artists.

A song they contributed to the film American Beauty got the band some well deserved recognition.  For all of you that have seen the movie, the song, called “We Haven't Turned Around,” is played during the scene when Kevin Spacey is undressing the teenage girl.  It is an excellent rock ballad that attests to the band’s superb range. It is one of my favorite tracks off of the new album.

Liquid Skin is very fluid and great as a whole but the tracks that stick out in my mind are “Hangover,” “Revolutionary Kind,” and the best of the best “Bring It On.” Those also happen to be the first three tracks on the CD. “Hangover” and “Revolutionary Kind” mesh their lyrics and music very smoothly. They are the album's first two tracks, two very soothing tracks that feed into the more up-tempo third track, “Bring It On,” which is what would be considered single material. It's a very catchy song, strong with good lyrics. It's the album's hook and protagonist against the album's antagonist “We Haven't Turned Around.”

“We Haven't Turned Around” is the album's sullen centerpiece. It is an insightful song about internal change in a person. The song's first verse reads “...we came again/ to stem the tide and point the blame.” Then the chorus follows  “...So you wanna spin the world around? / And anyone else cut 'em down.” The song is saying that people think they are the only ones that can cause change so they push themselves forward at the expense of others.  However, one ends up cutting people down instead of turning them around to the path of greatness. That's what I see in the song at least.

Liquid Skin is a masterful album that gels a lot of good ingredients together to make something great. It ain't no Britney Spears album, but it's still good music.

4 out of 5 music notes

Here's The album. Listen to some clips at Amazon.com




Check out some other Gomez CD's.
   
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