Gomez can divide critical opinion like few other bands. To some they're a bunch of boring, charmless musos with what might be most kindly termed a charismatic deficit. Others, however, see their updating of American blues and roots music as a thing of rare beauty, and so far there's been enough people in this category to make the Southport quintet one of the most successful bands in Britain. Their new album is a bit of a problem, however - while the first half contains possibly their best songs to date, the second sees them spiral off in a series of electronic experiments that don't suit them one little bit. The band's trademark cello and horns are all present and correct, but now they've been augmented by samples, loops and all manner of dubby noodlings, with results that are decidedly uneven. In Our Gun contains more original ideas than most bands manage in an entire career, but next time around Gomez need to edit themselves a bit better.
