Liquid Skin

Product Information

Somewhat obtuse in terms of its meandering melodies and eerie arrangements (“Come into my dream world,” they urge on “Blue Moon Rising,” one of several songs that spotlight their psychedelic sensibilities), they created an alluring pastiche that furthered their still burgeoning reputation as one of Britain’s most eccentric ensembles, as well as one of its most alluring. Bring It On is a considerably more immediate record than Liquid Skin, containing the three finest pop turns from each of Gomez’s three lead singers including what would have to be their signature tune, “Get Miles,” which you still hear from time to time on the soundtracks of TV shows when characters are experiencing drug trips. Records that aren't in picture sleeves will either be in a company sleeve or a generic plain sleeve. Opener “Hangover Girl” brings in Eastern mysticism, “Bring It On” has a Cajun, classic Americana vibe, and “Las Vegas Dealer” a Latin flavor, all combined with Gomez’s quirk. In 1999, a lot of young rock bands were reckoning with electronic, sample-based music by simply throwing elements of it in over the top of their guitars, bass, and drums.

This tone is maintained as the album reaches its later half with tracks such as ‘We Haven’t Turned Around’. Any of their albums is a good place to start, but Liquid Skin or 2006's How We Operate, are an absolute must. Liquid Skin is the second album by English rock group Gomez, released on 13 September 1999 by Hut Records. Google Analytics sets this cookie to calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track site usage for the site's analytics report.

Las Vegas Dealer" begins as a psychedelic piece and vocal harmonies in the vein of the Moody Blues, before incorporating Eastern rhythms. The material on the second CD varies on quality, completely excluding the B sides from the album's three singles in favour of stripped-down doodles like 'High On Liquid Skin', and an inferior recording of 'We Haven't Turned Around', minus the stunning cello. Suddenly just throwing a few record scratches or a drum loop in with your existing band performances was terribly outdated.

The band also tour Australia and New Zealand later in the year, and will perform both Bring It On and Liquid Skin in their entirety at both the Auckland and Brisbane shows. You ask how come they have been around all this time, I'll tell you Gomez are one of the best bands of all time. The second half of the record, which follows this, is amazing and one of the strongest flip sides you'll come across. As the record kicks in, Gomez’s anti-Britpop sound is out in full force, with track ‘Hangover’ showcasing a distinct folk/rock hybrid of wailing guitars and pounding drum beats. The aforementioned guitar tones takes control of the track, and drives the track foreword to be somewhat of a standout within the album.As a result, writing and recording for Gomez’s second album did not so much have a definitive start but instead it emerged out of the same creative energy as their debut, although it soon took its own distinctive path. VG/EX means that the item's sleeve is in Very Good condition and the disc is in Excellent condition. We Haven't Turned Around" features cellos; it originally began under the title "Canderel" with a different chorus section. It’s most immediately obvious from “Rhythm and Blues Alibi,” which begins as a lo-fi ballad with a plaintive Ian vocal and a clacking drum track, then blows up into a kaleidoscopic production when Ben takes over for the chorus.

Given time, you can imagine Gomez pulling the riffs into different shapes or re-appropriating the vocal rhythm for something new entirely, but time is not something the band thought a lot about in those early days. This brings the album to somewhat of a more down-beat sound, which is in stark juxtaposition to the albums overall jaunty nature.

Out of step with the death-throws of Britpop, the Brit-Americana vibes of Ottewell and his bandmates—Ian Ball (guitar, vocals), Paul Blackburn (bass), Tom Gray (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Olly Peacock (drums, synths, computers)—caught a wave of popularity but was misunderstood and maligned by the UK press, leaving them to be seen as a footnote to the late-‘90s era instead of a unique proposition that brought experimentation to the mainstream. Described as a blues rock album, Liquid Skin was compared to the work of Beck, the Grateful Dead, and Pearl Jam. We are available to book for live shows and events, as well as bespoke licensed music for videos, commercials, TV, film and more. Totally unintentional, it’s just the way I sing,” says Ottewell on the line from his Brighton home accompanied by his dog.

When we were compiling stuff for this special deluxe thing we’re doing here, I raided a bunch of CDs from my dad’s attic, he’d kept a bunch of stuff. There were certain gigs, like Barrowland [Ballroom] in Scotland where we really didn’t have to play, the crowd would just take it on for you. With songs like 'Step Inside', 'Flight' and 'Rosemary' left as b-sides, we can only imagine how much of a better album this could have been. Nostalgia has brought the excitement of old back around for both fans and the band, starting with the lavish reissue of debut Bring It On in 2018 and a subsequent tour. A vast array of demos as well as live recordings of the track provide a unique insight into not only the recording of the record but also a view of the band opposing traditional guitar music at the height of Britpop.This is fairly eclectic in some ways, but it's so firmly rooted in blues-based rock, and so limited by that, that it just feels like listening to a very talented bar band.