At a first glance, Gomez seems to have produced a concept album with their latest release, "In Our Gun." Along with the album title and title track, we have the first single, "Shot Shot," "Army Dub" and "Ruff Stuff." A military or overall theme of aggression, you might suppose, but don't let the apparent presence of a theme distract you - the album is hardly a cohesive body of work.
You want to like the album when you listen to it. You really do. The album has a substantial amount of energy and tracks with the most swirling nuances and adornment in the genre, as difficult to define as that may be. The alternation of three lead singers contributes to an enticing blend of textures and provides a wide range of expression. In a word, the compilation of songs presented here is really a lot of fun, and quite accessible to those who were unfamiliar with Gomez's work in the past.
An extreme change, on the other hand, clearly distinguishes this album from their previous work, "Bring it On" and "Liquid Skin." The dramatic influx of influence from others' work is sudden and unexpected; in past work, particularly "Bring it On," Gomez was quite successful in crafting their own sound and digging themselves into a quite favorable unclassifiable niche. That all ends here.
The beginning segment of the opening track, "Shot Shot," is a direct rip from Radiohead's "National Anthem." Surely this was intended to be ironic, but the "Kid A" borrowings don't stop there. Although Gomez's work has been labeled progressive in the past, the only place they seem to be progressing is into the growing line of Radiohead impersonators. Radiohead is often credited for repainting the entire landscape of modern rock; if Radiohead's work in repainting the modern rock landscape is Picasso, then Gomez is an unfortunate splatter of paint.
Granted, Gomez makes no attempt to move entirely away from their blues-rock roots. To their credit, 1998's "Bring it On" certainly incorporated token blips and beeps long before such adornments were associated with such rock prestige. This album, however, fails to evolve past 1998's, or even 1999's, dabbling.
Unfortunately for the band, the songs that attempt to adhere most closely to the more or less traditional rock roots are supreme disappointments. No musical idea introduced here is original; even stepping away from the electronic side of the spectrum, the band can't quite escape the glare of accusations of imitation. "Miles End" reeks of Travis, while Coldplay might have easily included "1000 times" on their album. Of course, the idea of these tracks actually being on a Travis or Coldplay album is absurd; they never would have actually made it onto their albums.
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There are, however, beacons of light that leave hope for more promising work in the future. "Drench" is a stunning Asian-influenced, multi-layered composition that falls short lyrically, but is still intriguingly alluring. The title track has a similar layered feel, progressing from a gentle, acoustic ballad-meets-Portishead aura to a jagged temper tantrum that would make the Chemical Brothers proud. "Ruff Stuff" is a rare success in trippy, surging electronic fanfare with a curious anti-drug message and glimmer of the originality with which Gomez was formerly associated.
The central problem with the album is not that it's inherently poorly done or that it's necessarily a horrible drop from Gomez's prior work. The issue at hand is that Gomez is a band with enormous potential and that potential shines through nearly everything that they produce. Sadly, very few of the tracks actually meet the shadow of what could have been, and as a result, the entire album suffers.
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