|
| |
Gomez
Out West
(ATO)
First Appeared in The Music Box, June 2005, Volume 12, #6
Written by John Metzger
Faced with the prospect of losing its recording contract, Gomez hit the road
with a vengeance in support of its recent studio effort Split the Difference.
After settling into San Francisco’s fabled Fillmore for a three-night engagement
in January, the group emerged with Out West, a two-disc, 100-minute
overview of the performances. There’s little doubt that the set is meant to
illuminate the almost mythical status of the ensemble’s concert appearances
while providing a summarization of its career thus far, but in truth, it is only
partially successful in its pursuits.
While Gomez’s studio endeavors are full of subtlety and diversity, these
stylistic trademarks largely are missing from the material on Out West.
Instead, the band cranks up both the volume and the energy in an attempt to
counter the loss of its dimensionality, and although this likely functioned
quite satisfactorily in person, its exuberant delivery doesn’t translate the
same sense of urgency when the music is separated from the event itself. As a
result, the bulk of the selections on the album, while adequately rendered, are
vastly inferior to their studio incarnations. That’s not to say that Out West
doesn’t have its moments — Here Comes the Breeze generates a head of
steam from its central jam as it rides its percolating rhythms through a
whirling, twirling gale-force torrent; propelled by its writing bass line,
Ping One Down is whipped into a frenzy; Blue Moon Rising effectively
merges its Doors-ian intro with its INXS-infused latter half; and a cover of Tom
Waits’ Going Out West is transformed into an earth-rumbling march that
strikes a Midnight Oil-meets-Oasis groove as guitars melt in the radiance of its
sun-baked hue. In the end, however, there isn’t enough contained on Out West
to generate much excitement from anyone except Gomez’s most enthusiastic fans. 
Out West is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please Click Here!
For UK orders, please
Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005
The Music Box
|
