Gomez - 'A New Tide' (Eat Sleep) Released 30/03/09

If Elbow have taught the music industry anything in the past year, it's that the elder statesman of the indie scene are still capable of producing the most exciting music. Elbow were a band on the wane, still finding inspiration in themselves but failing to spread this enthusiasm through the wider industry. One Mercury Music Prize later and Elbow are suddenly the influential heavyweights they always promised to be.  

It’s poignant then that Gomez, Mercury winners 11 years ago, have returned with an album which is a throw back to the glory days of their first two albums ‘Bring It On’ & ‘Liquid Skin’, the former the record that brought Gomez their finest moment. Since the late 90's Gomez have more existed than excelled, failing to match up to their past glories but still satisfying their dedicated fan base. The good news for that fan base (and the rest of us) is that ‘A New Tide’ is not only a fantastic return to form but an album which evokes memories of those two defining moments of their career.

Right from the off with ‘Mix’ we have the lazy acoustics and impassioned vocals of yesteryear. The guitars underpin the track until an eruption of percussion half way through which launches the album proper. ‘Little Pieces’ and ‘Natural Reaction’ tell love stories with the interplay of vocals between Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball particularly strong.