Liquid Skin [20th Anniversary Edition]

Gomez: Ian Ball, Paul Blackburn, Tom Gray, Ben Ottewell, Olly Peacock.
Additional personnel: Matt Turner (vocals, guitar); Ken Nelson & The Samurais, Steve Fellows (guitar); Tony Looby (alto saxophone); Rob Charles (tenor saxophone); Tony Robinson (trumpet, trombone); Jack Tinker (piano); Dajon Everett & The Appetite (percussion); Mojave 3, Ward, Krishnadassan, Bramham, Page, Joey The Dog (background vocals).
Engineers: Ken Nelson, Dae Hadley, Paul Hicks.
Recorded at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool, England; Abbey Road Studios, The Strongroom, & Blackwind Studios, London, England.
Gomez successfully combines the old with the new. On LIQUID SKIN the band mixes touches of '60s psychedelia and hippie folk-rock with a gritty, angular, post-grunge alt-rock sensibility. Acoustic instruments abound, buoyed by rootsy-sounding organ and the occasional electric guitar rave-up. At times, the songs employ funky rhythms that could only have been born in the wake of hip-hop and electronica, but the lack of electronics and programmed rhythms makes them feel entirely organic. Gomez is more about songs than jams, but there is a sense of kinship to the expansive neo-stoner rock of groups like Phish and Blues Traveler. Unlike those outfits, though, Gomez retains a very British feel, whether the eclectic arrangements on LIQUID SKIN lean toward the orchestral or the pastoral.