caines's Full Review: Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline by Gomez
No one is happier than my wife that Gomez has released a new CD. I have played Bring It On and Liquid Skin to the point that the laser in my CD player is burning a path in the discs.
Oh, in case you haven't heard, Gomez is my new favorite band. If you have any taste they should be yours too. Get on this bandwagon now before there is no room left. You want to have the self-satisfaction of saying you were there before everyone else joined in. Because they will. Trust me.
Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline is a new release but not exactly new material. It is a compilation of outtakes, alternative versions, and import single B-sides. The first two Gomez releases, Bring It On and Liquid Skin (http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-438A-AED7CE3-39C1A9E5-prod1) have a similar flavor to one another. Each has garnered the band much critical acclaim and a loyal cult-like following. ASTH is a complex, multi-level, vari-textured collection. In this collection Gomez seems to touch on every musical influence that has inspired them. To some this collection may seem to be a musically bipolar experience. If you fancy the Backstreet Boys or Ricky Martin I can guarantee it. Personally I find this to be not only refreshing in its lack of homogeneity, but also completely appropriate considering the band.
As in other releases the lead vocal duties are shared and exchanged between Ben Ottewell (guitars), Ian Ball (guitar and harmonica), and Tom Gray (guitar and keyboards). Olly Peacock plays drums and percussion while Paul Blackburn covers bass and additional backing vocals.
Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline is a two CD set but sells for the price of a single. I bought it at one of my favorite haunts in New York City for only $10.99. That's not a sale price either! Disc one is packed with 15 tracks. The second disk, Machismo, is an EP containing 5 more tasty recordings.
There is more in the way of liner notes in this release than I have ever seen on a Gomez CD. But true to form, the band photo is not much more than a high-contrast, blown-out image of the musicians. Facial features be dammed. Again, it is clear the music is what it is about. The boys of Gomez apparently could care less if you can visually identify them.
The opening track Sh!tbag 9 (modified for the youngsters reading this) is a 29 second rough riff between Ottewell's growling falsetto blues vocal and a lone guitar. It rolls right into Bring Your Lovin' Back Here, a jam reminiscent of a jangly Black Crows cut.
Emergency Surgery is a remix. I never heard the original so I can't compare it but is has a stunningly different sound from other Gomez songs. It has a dark quality. I wouldn't be surprised to hear it used in the soundtrack of film like Seven. I am reminded of Stone Temple Pilots' Lounge Fly on their second CD.
Hit On the Head makes one wonder, how on earth this could be a British group? A simple track that harkens back to the recordings of Robert Johnson. Guitar, solo vocal with a convincing story-filled southern dude on a hot dusty porch vibe, a snare, bass and a syncopated bongo beat sounding like it's played in part with a drumstick.
Flavors Bassa nova-esque vibe ramps up and gets a little rock edge before the middle of the song. It runs right into 78 Stone Shuffle a loose, up-tempo somewhat acoustic jazz piece which rambles is a version (of sorts) of 78 Stone Wobble from Gomez debut Bring I On.
We Haven't Turned Around (X-ray) is a haunting alternate version of one of my favorite Gomez songs. It opens with a keyboard intro riff lifted almost directly from the Beatles' Strawberry Fields. As lush as the Liquid Skin version is with cellos, guitars and multi-tracked vocals, X-ray is about as bare bones as you can get. Casiotone-like strings replace the cellos. The lush multi-tracked guitars replaced by a single guitar pumping through some simple amplifier created effects like tremolo and reverb. Some effect pedals (flange and distortion) alternately enhance these. At first I wasn't happy with the difference but by the fourth listen it really worked for me.
Buena Vista is a nine minute pseudo-psychedelic groove that, had it been back in the day, I would have advocated firing up some illicit organics and slipping on the headphones. But I'm a grown up now. The headphones and a quiet room will be just about all you need. This track reminds me of the weekend jam sessions my band would have, writing songs that seemed to last about twenty minutes long, looping through a variety of textures in one song.
Ottewell turns it loose on the 60 second Sh!tbag with his patented gruff vocals this time channeling a bit more of Creedence era John Fogerty than Eddie Vedder. My wife says, the straight-up fuzz guitar thrash riff is from every garage band from the seventies. Been there...
The Cowboy Song is just damn ridiculously dopey and fun. It is entirely instrumented by what sounds like the tinny music track from an arcade video game.
Skipping ahead, the last track on the main disc will make anyone listening to Gomez for the first time suddenly realize why this unfamiliar band sounds oddly familiar. The Beatles Getting Better was used on a Philips Electronics commercial. Aahhhh! Now you remember where you heard them!
Just when you think you're done and feeling kinda sated, you realize you have the Machismo EP tucked into your jewel case. Five more little gems which continue the textured, multi-faceted sound of Gomez in this collection.
Despite the fact that you will hear numerous clearly defined musical influences (even though you may not be able to identify specific influences) Gomez is probably the among most original bands recording today. In Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline Gomez borrows, builds and expands on everyone from The Beatles to Pearl Jam to the Black Crows. Of course the press loves to praise newcomers as the next great thing, then shoot them down like clay pigeons.
"They're always really ready to pounce on you and have a go," says Peacock in a 1999 Rolling Stone interview with Allison Stewart. "They initially found our ages and where we come from to be just too bizarre to be accepted for what it is, which is guys with great big record collections who want to be creative and have fun. The only major criticism has been about our looks, or something like that, but we don't give a f--- about that. The music is what counts."
If you have heard Gomez previous releases that should be obvious. Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline will be a great addition to Gomez fans' collection. It is a different look at the band you have come to admire. For the newly introduced, get ready for new music and new sounds.
And come on, how could you not like a CD with a name like this?
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