Liquid Skin

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Liquid Skin is the second album by English rock group Gomez, released on 13 September 1999 by Hut Records. Following the release of their debut studio album Bring It On (1998), the band began recording their follow-up between August 1998 and June 1999 at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, and Abbey Road Studios in London. Gomez were allowed to self-produce the sessions after their label heard the strength of their demos. Described as a blues rock album, Liquid Skin was compared to the work of Beck, the Grateful Dead, and Pearl Jam.

Liquid Skin received generally favourable reviews from critics, many of whom found it to be a retread of Bring It On with improved production. Preceded by a two-month tour of the United States, "Bring It On" was released as the lead single from Liquid Skin on 28 June 1999. Gomez appeared at a number of festivals, prior to the release of the album's second single "Rhythm & Blues Alibi" on 30 August 1999. Coinciding with the release of Liquid Skin, the band embarked on tours of the US and the UK, which were then followed by its third single "We Haven't Turned Around" on 8 November 1999. All three singles reached the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart, with "Rhythm & Blues Alibi" peaking the highest at number 18.

Background

Gomez released their debut studio album Bring It On in April 1998.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It peaked at number 11 in the UK, where it won the Mercury Music Prize.<ref name=AMbio>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=UKhistory>Template:Cite web</ref> All three of its singles charted on the UK Singles Chart, with "Whippin' Piccadilly" reaching the highest at number 35.<ref name=UKhistory/> It was promoted with a tour of the United States supporting Eagle-Eye Cherry.<ref name=AMbio/>

Based on the strength of the demos the band had made, their label let them self-produce their next album.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sessions for it began at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool in August 1998.<ref name=DMinterview>Template:Cite web</ref> By November 1998, the band were working at Abbey Road Studios, where they recorded strings, before moving to a mansion near Hastings. Guitarist Ian Ball said they moved so that they would be able to "recreate the home-recorded sound of the first album, but in grander surroundings".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=Xsinterview>Template:Cite web</ref> They took a break to play a US tour with Mojave 3 in April and May 1999.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gomez had collectively recorded 32 songs during the recording sessions; they had finished in June 1999.<ref name=NMEagain>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=NMEannounce>Template:Cite web</ref>

Composition and lyrics

Musically, the sound of Liquid Skin has been described as blues rock, rooted in American blues and folk, with elements of art rock and psychedelic music.<ref>Citations for the sound of Liquid Skin:

Blues rock, roots and psychedelic: Template:Cite web
Art rock elements: Template:Cite web</ref> It has been compared to the work of Pearl Jam (specifically their 1996 album No Code), Beck, and the Grateful Dead.<ref name=ExclaimLS>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=AMreview/> Acoustic guitars lead the majority of the songs, which are accompanied by horns, strings, and keyboards.<ref name=ExclaimLS/> There is a bigger emphasis on vocals and harmonies; in contrast to Bring It On, which typically featured one singer per track, most of the songs on Liquid Skin had all three (Ball, guitarist Tom Gray, and guitarist Ben Ottewell).<ref name=DMinterview/> Ottewell theorised that the band's experience travelling in Australia, Europe and the United States influenced their writing.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The album's title went through multiple names – God's Big Spaceship and Touching Up – before settling on Liquid Skin, which was inspired by a product they had found while in the United States.<ref name=NMEagain/><ref name=NMEannounce/> They almost called it Liquid State, though Gray said that as a title it was "not as good as 'Liquid Skin'."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ball described it as a "party record", with the "general theme" being "how many different ways we can play the same song in four minutes".<ref name=NMEagain/>

The sitar-driven opening track, "Hangover", deals with love and being drunk, according to Gray.<ref name=MTVwrap/><ref name=WOSreview>Template:Cite web</ref> It is a delta blues song that opens with Ken Nelson misquoting the opening line from Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979), followed by a loud bassline.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Revolutionary Kind" sees the band mix country and techno, recalling the work of Alabama 3.<ref>Hinton 2012, p. 735</ref> Gray wrote the song in a house on Ash Grove in Leeds; when they were recording it, the hall they were tracking in would burn down frequently.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Bring It On", the name of which alludes to the band's debut, includes a reference to that album's opening song, "Get Miles".<ref name=StylusPG>Template:Cite web</ref> It ends with a raga rock coda; the song was written around the same time as "Tijuana Lady" (from Bring It On), though was abandoned and left off their debut.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=RSreview/> Gray wrote "Blue Moon Rising" as a reaction to the death of Princess Diana.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Las Vegas Dealer" begins as a psychedelic piece and vocal harmonies in the vein of the Moody Blues, before incorporating Eastern rhythms.<ref name=MTVwrap>Template:Cite web</ref> Ball said it was written about a drunken night while in Las Vegas, Nevada, with Nuno Bettencourt's father.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

"We Haven't Turned Around" features cellos; it originally began under the title "Canderel" with a different chorus section.<ref name=Xsinterview/><ref name=WOSreview/> "Fill My Cup" transitions over the course of its length from blues to skate metal, with two middle eight sections.<ref name=NMEreview/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Rhythm & Blues Alibi" was written by Ball while attending university; Ottewell saw it as "taking the piss out of R&B music" and "the band and probably me, particularly!". Ball was playing guitar with a Zoom Sampletrak sampler, when Gray suggested using some of the parts from it as the song's bridge section.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Gray described the song as being a dig at a lot of "landfill RnB in the late-90s, but we were also saying that we were dicks appropriating black culture".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "California" is a slow-building song that incorporates droning, and switches to a boogie; throughout this, the song details escaping California.<ref name=WOSreview/><ref name=StylusPG/> The composition of the song was completed while backstage during a show with Mojave 3 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The closing track, "Devil Will Ride", uses a vocoder and marching band horns, concluding with a Beatlesque fadeout.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=PMMM/> Ball said the song was known under the working title of "God's Big Spaceship".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Release

Gomez embarked on a tour of the US in April and May 1999, where they were supported by Mojave 3; they cancelled shows in Europe to focus on the US.<ref name=NMEagain/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 20 June 1999, Liquid Skin was announced for release in three months' time.<ref name=NMEannounce/> "Bring It On" was released as the lead single from the album on 28 June 1999.<ref name=NMEagain/> Two versions were released on CD: the first with "Dire Tribe" and "M57", while the second included "Chicken Bones" and "Step Inside".<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> They then appeared at the Glastonbury, T in the Park and V Festivals over the next two months.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Rhythm & Blues Alibi" was released as a single on 30 August 1999.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Two versions were released on CD: the first with "The Best in Town" and "So", while the second included a "pre-mellotron" version of "Rhythm & Blues Alibi", "ZYX", and a live version of "Tijuana Lady" (under the name "Tijuanalaska").<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

Liquid Skin was released through Hut Records on 13 September 1999; its US release occurred a week later.<ref name=NMEnear/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Coinciding with this, the band went on a tour of the US and then the UK in October and November 1999.<ref name=NMEnear>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "We Haven't Turned Around" was released as a single on 8 November 1999.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Two versions were released on CD: the first with "Flight" and "Rosemary", while the second featured an "X-Ray" version of "We Haven't Turned Around", "Gomez in a Bucket (A Seaside Town Made of Ice Cream, Slowly Melting)", and "Emergency Surgery".<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>

"Bring It On" and "We Haven't Turned Around" were included on the band's second compilation album, Five Men in a Hut: A's, B's and Rarities 1998–2004 (2004).<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Liquid Skin was packaged with Bring It On as a two-CD combo in 2003.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> The band's first four studio albums and Five Men in a Hut: A's, B's and Rarities 1998–2004, were collected together as 5 Album Set in 2012.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Liquid Skin was reissued in 2019 as a two-CD set that included a live show, demos, and alternative versions.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> Ball had become the band's archivist and helped bring the reissue to fruition.<ref name=Xsinterview/> Following this, the band toured across the UK and Australia, where they played the album in its entirety.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Reception

Template:Album ratings Liquid Skin was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. Tom Sinclair of Entertainment Weekly noted that the band had been referred to as roots rock, "but one listen to their sophomore CD shows they’re twisting those roots into strange and marvelous shapes".<ref name=EWreview/> AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine saw the album as a "cleaner, more streamlined version" of Bring It On, adding that they perform music "that they believe to be experimental or rootsy, but not quite going far enough in either direction".<ref name=AMreview/> NME Piers Martin also found it to be "very much like" their debut, "only bigger, even more confident and with far better production".<ref name=NMEreview/>

Los Angeles Times writer Richard Cromelin said Gomez had "a free-ranging imagination, twisting and distorting and juxtaposing [their songs] with an exhilarating sense of freedom".<ref name=LATreview/> PopMatters editor Sarah Zupko wrote that band had "picked up a few new studio tricks or two and rounded out their sound with fuller textures and better-produced mixes". She added that the "back-to-the-country-sounding songs" had a "trippy vibe," and were "just as good as ever".<ref name=PMreview/> In a review for Rolling Stone, journalist Greg Kot wrote that "the arrangements on Liquid Skin are more substantial, beefed up with strings and horns, and the songs sturdier" than those on Bring It On.<ref name=RSreview/>

"Bring It On" reached number 21 in singles chart. "Rhythm & Blues Alibi" reached number 18. "We Haven't Turned Around" reached number 38.<ref name=UKhistory/> CMJ New Music Report ranked the album at number 13 on their list of the Top 30 Editorial Picks of 1999.<ref>Sansome ed. 2000, p. 5</ref> PopMatters included it on their Most Memorable Albums of the year list.<ref name=PMMM>Template:Cite web</ref>