On their debut album,
Bring It On
, England's
Gomez
introduce their original take on bluesy
roots rock
. Unlike
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
, this isn't amphetamine-fueled freak-out music but similar at times to
Beck
's acoustic-based work (
One Foot in the Grave
), with more going on vocally. The band has a total of three strong vocalists, who can switch from pretty harmonies to gutsy
blues
outpourings in the blink of an eye. The band manages to cover a lot of ground convincingly on
, which is unusual, since it commonly takes bands the course of a few releases to hone their sound. The three British singles released from the album are definite highlights --
"Get Myself Arrested,"
"Whippin' Piccadilly,"
and
"78 Stone Wobble,"
the latter containing a beautifully haunting acoustic guitar riff similar to
Nirvana
's unplugged version of
the Meat Puppets
'
"Plateau."
All the praise that
's debut received is definitely not hype. The album is consistently great, as proven by such tracks as
"Tijuana Lady,"
"Love Is Better Than a Warm Trombone,"
"Get Myself Arrested."
~ Greg Prato