Since most visibly being initiated by the British-invasion bands of the '60s, a rich heritage of transatlantic musical conversation has become one of the cornerstones of modern rock music. Gomez is a band that continues this tradition with an admittedly less nationally centered sound than most of their predecessors and contemporaries.
Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline (bless them for being English--it's not a shopping cart, it's a trolley!) is a collection of out-takes, four track recordings and BBC radio sessions paired with their recent Machismo EP released in England by Hut Records.
The non-studio material is actually of surprising quality that definitely justifies its release while the EP included in the package adds the gloss with which those who have encountered their earlier work are familiar.
Occasionally offering tastes of what Beck might sound like if he took a more introspective route to making music (see "Hit on the Head") and slabs of American-colored blues-rock ("Flavors"), Gomez is a band that refuses to operate within the mold of its fellow popular English groups. No Radiohead-reminiscent art-rock or Blur-styled English indie here--instead, Gomez serves up a fresh mix of primarily American musical tastes that resulted in the British press's laudation of the band's debut--1998's Bring It On.
Not a band to let the listener forget the Atlantic across which they are stretching for inspiration, the non-EP material concludes with a cover of the eponymous Beatles' tune "Getting Better"--kind of a last minute assurance that these American-sounding boys are in fact English lads playing dress-up.
On Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline, Gomez continues to buck the trends of its native country's musical scene--a defiance that made the band popular in the first place. However, the two discs that comprise this release are more of a curiosity than an album proper--a fact that makes Gomez's earlier work more appealing to all but the band's most rabid fans.
--Brian Gettler