It’s amazing to think I was only 7 when Bring It On came out, and in all the time that has followed their standards have not slipped, despite a change in sound. I haven’t been aware of them for all of that time, but ever since I heard In Our Gun, I knew this was a band I wanted to hear more of. (edit r.e. standards – this paragraph was written prior to complete listening)
Whatever’s On Your Mind is Gomez’s 8th album, and continues with the more Americana feel that A New Tide had. Whilst the two albums preceding ANT had that rockier edge, it’s been lacking for the most part since. It’s hinted at here a couple of times on Options and subtly on X-Rays, but perhaps it has to be accepted that it isn’t possible to make another Bring It On.
The sound has changed, and as such, the album should be judged for what it is, rather than what it isn’t. It is an album of American TV drama background music. They’ve had a few songs off the last 3 albums in shows like The Riches, Grey’s Anatomy and House (admittedly, that was Get Miles), and Just As Lost As You Are (Youtube clip above) is destined to follow.
The band have clearly raked in some money and publicity from it (the band have been twice as big stateside as here in blighty since about 2003), and as such have attempted to produce more. It’s a crying shame that the band have done so.
There’s glimpses of the Gomez of old with a couple of songs at the back end of the album with more to give after a couple of listens, namely X-Rays, below, and That Wolf, with a hint of a synth harking back to more experimental times.
Having been left ultimately disappointed, I’m off to listen to Ben Ottewell’s Shapes And Shadows – it has become much clearer he did this more for the music than the fame.
