Bring It On

Bring It On by British band Gomez is not what you would expect. This is not another brit pop act, but the least British sounding band. The album is full of American roots rock sounding as it's from the southern states. The songs a beautifully composed and the voice of the singer has a raw edge that makes a perfect fit with the music style. The production is crisp and it has not aged a bit.

Quirky indie rock followed by sensitive fragile acoustic numbers. It's pretty impressive to be honest. Thanks for offering this up.

Wow this is a unique thing… would never have thought this band was from England what with the bluesy underpinnings. Really good though!

Not an album I was familiar with, so was expecting big things after reading it beat Mezzanine and Urban Hymns to the Mercury Music Prize. Wasn’t disappointed, brilliant indie album. Love the vocals and bluesy bass lines, and there’s something really distinctive about the sound. I preferred the first half to the more acoustic ending, but still straight into my frequent rotation.

1998, Indie Rock Singles: --------------------- 78 Stone Wobble (UK, 44) Get Myself Arrested (UK 19) Whippin' Piccadilly (UK 35) Standouts: Get Miles, Get myself Arrested, Tijuana Lady Rating: 3.5/5

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Tijuana lady, Get myself arrested

I remember there was a band Gomez only because I worked for a software company that acquired another software company, which happened to also be named Gomez, in 2009. We thought about adopting their brand name for about a minute, before we realized that having the same name as a semi-well known band would make it hard for people to find us. Even remembering that, I couldn't have told you what their music sounded like, I had completely forgotten. And it's actually really good. More bluesy than I would have guessed. 4 stars.

Was a bit worried about the Tom Waits-esque vocals heading into this one, but ended up enjoying the grungy mix of guitars and synths on this LP. There's a great sense and variety of space, the album veering from dark, dimly-lit numbers to airy, acoustic jaunts. The production is incredible as well, sounds like this was recorded in the 2020s and not the late 90s'. Did feel a bit long for how many novel ideas it brought to the table, but this was still a solid listen.

This was fun and I almost made it all the way through the bonus disc. It wasn't amazing though, so I'm going with three stars. It sounded a bit like The Stone Roses at times, but then it sounded like lots of things, from many genres, which I guess was the album's main strength (it didn't get stale), but also a weakness (it became a bit too erratic). As blues/ psychedelic/ alt-rock/ whatever it was fine.

Nothing burger

Not bad

Mezcla de rockabilly, pop relajado, rock suave. Un tanto repetitivo el estilo y sin mucho más recorrido. Nada que destacar, aunque se deja escuchar.

Bluesy, unique, and I got through it.

“Get Myself Arrested” was on a playlist I lost, and I’m happy to be reunited with it! But, I’ve quickly grown tired of Ben Ottewell’s forced-air vocals.

David Stubbs of *Spin* wrote that *Bring It On* transcends pastiche to become a successful "product of '90s simultaneism"... Well I'm not so sure Gomez "transcend" pastiche in this debut. They cross the line that marks its limits, revert back to where they came from to explore a few other interesting directions, straddle the line a few times more, and then toy with the idea of erasing it altogether to make sure they won't look like dilettantes or sterile imitators. But damningly, they never *fully* erase said line, as much as they shuffle their feet back and forth on it... The pastiche area is tied to Gomez's strong blues influences, of course, as exemplified by *Bring It On*'s opener "Get Miles". And what's outside of that pastiche area is less bluesy turf -- more like some melancholic art-folk, seasoned with some britpop balladry and electronica flavors here and there. The thing is, having so many directions all at once can make you look as if you're having a lack of directions in your overall artistry, very ironically. Stubbs then went on to explain what he meant by "90s simultaneism": "these days, musics from different eras and places are all equally accessible and therefore all equally contemporary". In *Bring It On*, which was released in 1998, you sure have the sort of hodge-podge, kitchen-sink aesthetics shrewdly foretelling the manifold post-genre inspirations that the -- at the time nascent -- internet would generously provide to musicians in the decades to come. In that sense, the album aged quite well: it sets up a very distinct "mood" that is decidedly not tied to the sound of its day and age. So I guess the record *does* transcend something, even if I can't really put my finger on what that thing is. Does *Bring It On* have that many memorable songs and compositions that can stand the test of time, though? The jury's still out on this one. The Beck comparison is also interesting in that matter... As drawn to the same kitchen-sink aesthetics as Mr. Hansen himself was at the time, the Californian musician also took great care to make his more substantial highlights sound authentic enough and grounded in an Americana tradition that was reproach-proof. By displacing that same Americana tradition to the land of fish-and-chips, Gomez kind of lost something in translation along the way for me. Did some boomer blues fans also experience that loss when they listened to the Mayall / Clapton clique back in the sixties? The difference between American blues-rock and its sixties British emulation is indiscernible for my ears today, to be perfectly honest. But I digress here... To return to the music of Gomez, the latter too often sounds grounded in the whereabouts of a somewhat messier-looking Starbucks Coffee joint in my mind's eye (a simulacrum *of sorts*), instead of being seemingly grounded in a cabin in the sticks. It doesn't really matter whether that ideal cabin should be located in the small valleys of Lancashire or right in the middle of the Arkansas plains. It's just that I should see it when I close my eyes and listen to *Bring It On*. Unfortunately, I don't. To be clear, the music of Gomez does not exactly provide a case of "style over substance" for me. The substance is there, but where the use of style should enhance the latter, that use ends up adding a layer of static hopelessly muddling the overall picture. One interesting example of that phenomenon is the single "Get Myself Arrested", which is both a "highlight" in the tracklist and that one moment where Gomez's shtick goes through an acid test revealing its limitations. The song flies its freak flag high, yet doesn't go anywhere decisive with it. In comparison, the deeper cut that follows ("Free To Run") has a more "classic" feel that's indebted to the balladry of The Band, therefore leaving a more emotional imprint on me. But when the quirks are suddenly gone, it's as if something's also missing here, and the whole thing becomes a never-ending conundrum. The same dynamic applies for earlier "one-two punch" successions in the tracklist ("Whippin' Piccadilly" / "Make No Sound" ; "78 Stone Wobble" / "Tijuana Lady"). You get some cutesy off-kilter stuff (possibly a bit "gratuitous"), which suddenly switches to more serious tones that are sometimes a little 'by-the-numbers' as well. Fortunately, the obvious centerpiece that "Here Comes The Breeze" is -- owing a little to Creedence Clearwater Revival ballads this time around -- digs the more convincing and authentic groove already dug by "Tijuana Lady" right before. Yet that good song is maddeningly followed by the somewhat shallow exercise-in-style "Love Is Better Than A Warm Trombone". And the fact that "Get Myself Arrested" harbors the same sort of tired reggae guitar licks as that previous tune in the tracklist -- not to mention the same sort of vocals alternating between slacker and air-forced performances -- surely doesn't help. Oh, and don't get me started on the nine-minute blues-reggae psych dirge "Rie's Wagon" concluding the album (not counting the short outro here). After so many twists and turns potentially make you feel a bit queasy (because the drive is not that self-assured), that long dirge is the last straw on the camel's back. Even if I understand that this long cut is first and foremost a "moodpiece", I can't help spotting tons of self-indulgent intents in it. Don't get me wrong, Gomez were insanely talented young musicians by the time they released this debut, and they made a great effort offering very original music. Yet for me, this finite list should not merely reward talent or even originality. It should also reward artists succeeding *in their own terms* while also writing and performing enough songs pushing your buttons without beating about the bush. It should reward albums that feel both dynamic AND cohesive. And I'm not sure this is what we have here. At least not for me. Many thanks to the user who suggested this record, that was an interesting listen. Looking at your gallery, I know we see eye to eye about lots and lots of great artists, and for me, your suggestion comes from a right place, even if it doesn't really work for me. I still think it's a bit wild to consider *Bring It On* as a five-star record while also considering *The Velvet Underground And Nico* as a two-star one. But each and every reviewer in this app -- including your humble servant -- has at least *one* hot take that's frowned upon by most other users. You've probably witnessed that yourself by now. Have fun exploring the end of the original list (you're almost there!). And see you in the users list... 2/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 2 for the artistry -- please note that in the grand scheme of things, this is still a "pretty good" or "fairly good" mark, all things considered). ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 117 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 123 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 279 (including this one) ---- Émile, *quatre* nouveaux messages pour toi au dessus, du *Solid State Survivor* de Yellow Magic Orchestra au *Atrocity Exhibition* de Danny Brown