CD Review: Gomez - How We Operate

Celebrating ten years of original sound this October, Gomez returns with their eagerly awaited new album, How We Operate.  After four self-produced albums and some coaxing from their relatively new label, (ATO Records) Gomez hired an outside producer to fine-tune their latest.  Gil Norton, who has worked with one of Gomez’s personal favorites, The Pixies and other seasoned musicians (Counting Crows and Foo Fighters), added his expertise while preserving their unique “genre-less” style.The roots of Gomez trace back to four friends from Southport, England:  Guitarist/vocalist Ian Ball and drummer Olly Peacock played together in a local heavy-metal band influenced by the likes of both grunge (Nirvana and Pearl Jam) and 60’s psychedelia (Jimi Hendrix and Woody Guthrie).  By their late teens they met up with Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar, vocals) and Tom Gray (vocals, guitars, keyboards) to begin blazing their own trail in the indie-music world.  The final piece to the puzzle was found when Ian met Ben Ottewell.  His slide guitar skills and brusque, velvety voice was the perfect fit for these English bluesmen.   

They slipped as comfortably into their name as they did their music:  Back in 1996, they played their first gig without a formal name.  They left a sign out for a friend named Gomez to indicate where they were playing and the rest is history.  And quite an impressive history with seven albums in less than ten years.  Their debut album in 1998, Bring It On received critical acclaim from both sides of the Atlantic and won the Mercury Music Prize for best album that year. 

The band’s following albums, Liquid Skin (1999), In Our Gun (2002) and Split the Difference (2004) all reached the top 40 on the UK and Australian charts.  In an effort to build their popularity in the US, Gomez toured the states extensively in the past few years. They played at the Coachella Festival in 2003, various venues in 2004, and joined Cake last year as part of the Virgin Records Megatour.  In June 2005, they released a double disc live album, Out West from compilations of shows recorded at San Francisco’s Fillmore Theater.

They obviously have a lot to say and do just that in their own Gomez way: Since their gestation, Ben Ottewell, Ian Ball, and Tom Gray have all been passing the baton on different songs.  Despite three very different tenors, they created a signature sound regardless of who was singing on any single track.  This equal opportunity approach between the three guitarists lets the band members reach into a personal reservoir of musical styles – sometimes sounding as deep and heavy as Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) or Scott Stapp (formerly Creed), other times cheerful and happy-go-lucky tones reflect the sixties Southern California feel. 

Communal music in every sense of the word – all five band members are songwriters, as well.  The result is an amalgamation ranging from sixties soul to seventies funk, part Brit-pop and part electronica.  Throw in a little American blues and roots and you’ve got one organic original– Gomez. How We Operate was released in May 2006.  The album’s title track made it on the U.S. map when featured in the Grey’s Anatomy episode, “Deterioration of the Fight or Flight Response.”   There is a certain similarity to the Foo Fighters in the composition of this song in both the chorus and bridges.  Like Dave Grohl, Ben Ottewell’s deep, edgy voice can range from a roar to a tender whisper.  

Article Author: Joanne Schenker

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