Gomez - Split The Difference

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Free Music Notes for Split The Difference

Free Music Review: Two Reviews
Hit: 5 Stars

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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