Gomez - Whatever's On Your Mind (Eat Sleep Records) Released: 6/06/11

Gomez are a lot like BBC Radio 3. Until I laid my ears on their ‘Whatever’s On Your Mind’ this week, I had never listened to a note of their output but was thoroughly reassured by their existence. If I had the inclination I could probably chart the formative years of my life to the Gomez discography, or in fact the BBC Proms, but it’s not like they’re ever going to stop. If they did I would have been distraught. All those years spent in a Gomez-free existence and not for one second did I stop to consider whether I was taking this Mercury Prize winning outfit for granted.

Well now fate has conspired to crush the sweet little paradigm I had created for myself and this Southport five piece so that BBC Radio 3 is all that stands between me and a fully working knowledge of things that continue to plough on with no regard for the rest of the world. Frankly though, my ‘take it or leave it and I’ll probably leave it’ attitude has been little changed by the unspectacular competence of ‘Whatever’s On your Mind’.

In fairness, there is a lot that is pleasant about the latest Gomez LP. ‘Options’ crescendos in sun-kissed swoons of French horn, ‘Equalize’ chugs away until bursting into a sprightly piano-lead hoedown of a middle third and ‘That Wolf’ ripples with a Rusko-aping bass wobble. ‘Just As Lost As You’ is even one of the best cover versions of a Wilco song not written by Wilco which I have yet to hear. Still I struggle to believe this a record whose lyrics school kids will adorn their pencil cases with or adults will blast on the car stereo until their children will take it no longer.

This is obviously a harsh standard to exact on the band but you have to think at this stage in their career, ‘listenable’ is not going to equate with longevity much longer. On current form, the only people left to spin a new Gomez album will be those compelled to, such as myself, and disgruntled Radio 3 listeners.