Is this Britpop? I never really bought into the Britpop thing. Like most 'scenes', there's good and bad and of all the new British bands in the later 1990s, I think Gomez were the first to make me sit up and want to take notice.
This album, a Mercury Music Prize winner, was a firm favourite and bought at the time, but I haven't listened to it for a while.
Kicking off with the languid Get Miles, Ben Ottewell's bluesy rasp rocks along, before the lighter, bouncier tale in Whipping Piccadilly. Make No Sound is another bluesy number, with a simple guitar accompaniment, and some nice cello, then 78 Stone Wobble begins with a Portishead trip-hop sound leading into a lovely song.
Tijuana Lady is a slower, simpler song, pleasant enough but it does go on a bit - there isn't seven minutes of fun here. But the quality is restored by the lovely, summery Here Comes The Breeze. Love Is Better Than A Warm Trombone rocks along pleasantly taking us into the fantastically laidback mock reggae of Get Myself Arrested followed by the smooth, almost country sound of Free To Run.
Bubblegum Years is a gentle, unremarkable little song, taking us to the album's finale (apart from The Comeback, the 45 second run out track) the powerful and full-blooded blues-rock of Rie's Wagon, a sprawling nine minutes of wonderful mess!
I expected to enjoy this, and I have, but I'd forgotten how varied and diverse this album is. A fantastic debut, which sadly, the band never seemed able to top
4* - A great piece of 1990s British rock
Comments