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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gomez Au Go Go, October 3, 2004
I'm not certain why Gomez conjure calumny in their native U.K., where they are often dismissed as second-division dad rockers. Yes, these five scousers - Ian Ball (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Ben Ottewell (vocals, guitar), Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar) and Olly Peacock (drums) - freely pillage their fathers' record collections for whatever turns them on, but like Beck, they take it all in and turn out something else - something that kicks with tension and fury. Whereas their last album, 2002's "In Our Gun," was willfully experimental and cockeyed, their latest, "Split the Difference," is decidedly more straightforward. "This time we were interested in coming up with something more visceral," says Gray, and he's spot on. Holing themselves up in a remote locale on the Sussex coast, the band had nothing else to do but focus on forging clattering rock noise irradiated with West Coast sunshine. With their thrashy guitars and gallumphing drums, songs like "Do One," "These 3 Sins," and "Silence" - the hot-rocking trilogy that begins the album, show a band brimming with bile and channeling it into spit-tunes that don't forego melody. Most of the rest of the record is brutally crunchy but also honeyed, like an overstuffed mouthful of trail mix. Even the burnished country waltz of "Sweet Virginia" is not without splinters. Spotlighting Ottewell's affecting burr of a voice, closer "There It Was" breaks down the blitzkrieg, sending "Split the Difference" off into a haunting mist. This is a starkers and often quite brilliant record.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Two Reviews, May 18, 2004
For those of you that have heard Gomez before:Back with their fourth album, Gomez has created another masterpiece of texture and sound. Unlike previous efforts, however, Split the Difference has a much higher quantity of upbeat songs. That's not to say that the old Gomez is not there anymore. It's present in songs like Me, You and Everybody and Meet Me in the City. Songs like Catch Me Up, Where Ya Going and Chicken Out might surprise you with how much they don't sound like their previous work, but there's no denying they're from Gomez. Two tracks don't work all that well. Extra Special Guy is in the vein of Rough Stuff, with the lyrics destroying an otherwise ok song, and There It Was is a snoozer much like Sound of Sounds was. All in all, however, this album has Gomez branching out without them loosing their sound. Split the Difference is definitely a triumph of an album. For those of you that haven't heard Gomez before: Gomez is probably the best band that most people have heard but never heard of before. They've been in commercials (performing Getting Better for the Phillips Magnavox), movies (in the background in American Beauty, Gone in 60 Seconds and in the previews of Walking Tall) and on TV (MTV uses them for background on many of their shows). They don't get much play on the radio, though, and so they largely spread by word of mouth. The biggest criticism of Gomez has been about how inaccessible they are. Many of their best tracks reach into the 5-7 minute range and don't have as much hook or drive as many of today's more popular rock. While long meandering tracks had their heyday in the 70's, today most of the songs being played now tend to be short and simple. Songs incorporating many ideas have given way to songs playing one idea to death. Some of the problem is that Gomez is hard to categorize. They aren't Punk (of any era), but they also aren't hard Rock (as many of the distortion driven post-grunge bands are). They aren't neo-folk (as in Jack Johnson and Ben Harper) or garage rock (as in the Strokes and the Hives). The best description might be British Traditional Rock, but even that doesn't apply all that well to Gomez. The only way to truly categorize them is to say they're good. Gomez has finally responded to this new landscape by shortening their songs and picking the tempo up a bit (they still incorporate many ideas into each track). The result is their most accusable album to date. While there are no tracks that will explode onto the scene and saturate the airwaves, most of the tracks are instantly likeable and all of the tracks get better on each subsequent listen. Many of the songs, like Catch Me Up and Silence, will hook you on the first listen. They have Others, like Meet Me In the City and Sweet Virginia, hearken back to the old Gomez and will take a few listens before you really get into them. In the end, however, Gomez should win many people over with this gem of an album. For everybody: Whether you're just now discovering Gomez or you've been a fan for a while, Split the Difference will not disappoint. It is one of the best rock albums this year.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inventive melodic rock, August 24, 2004
Went to see this band live recently on a whim, having heard a couple of their older songs on the radio. I came away impressed and humming some of the songs from this album. I'm a fan of offbeat, melodic rock, e.g. Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Crowded House, Robyn Hitchcock. Like these artists, Gomez has found a way to integrate influences -- there are echoes of psychedelic 60s, folksy 70s and electronic music -- in a way that eludes easy pigeonholing and sounds like something their own. And while they often take the songs in unexpected directions with unusual chord or tempo changes, they keep it coherent. There's a strong sense of melody and a lyricism in some places, raucous rocking energy in others. They come across in concert as both focused and joyous, and this CD is a joy, too.
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