Gomez

The British group Gomez has since its inception been a victim of their home country’s hype machine. With NME consistently shouting the band’s praises, the unfailing quality and originality of their spacey un-Brit Brit-pop is wasted on listeners who ignore the press’ over-saturation of “In the Studio” interviews and five-star reviews and continue to have them languish in sales obscurity. Dave Matthews wanted to change all that, so he signed Gomez to his ATO label imprint in the hopes he could rescue them from the dark depths David Gray was hiding out in for a number of years. The result of their efforts is How We Operate, an album that caters to what American audiences’ ears were craving 10 years ago when Matthews first busted onto the scene. Everything about the album has a very high quality, from its stunning instrumentation and Ben Ottwell’s breathy vocals, and occasionally manages to go into wonderful and dark places, but the album feels more like something Toad the Wet Sprocket would have done well in its heyday than Gomez would do second-rate today. How We Operate proves Gomez can still garner the hype, but there is no heart behind it.

For more info see: gomez.co.uk