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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
You have to feel a little bit sorry for blues-loving, Mercury-Prize-winning indie Brit-rockers Gomez. Following the gargantuan success of their debut LP Bring It On in 1998, they've consistently failed to recapture the same levels of hype and adoration, despite producing several albums' worth of innovative, charming and genuinely atmospheric songs. Whether works like Liquid Skin, In Our Gun and Split the Difference are weaker than Bring It On, or whether they simply didn't get enough promotional oomph, is a debate fans and critics will enjoy for years to come. But Five Men in a Hut - a collection of the band's best singles, flipsides and unreleased tracks from their Virgin/Hut period – provides apologists with arguments aplenty. Not only is the anthology laboriously comprehensive (36 tracks, including their first single "78 Stone Wobble", career highlights "Whipping Piccadilly" and "Get Myself Arrested" plus unreleased tracks "Old China" and "Diskoloadout") - it's also surprisingly listenable. While only an obsessive would sit through both CDs in one go – this is a quintet whose languorous leanings can be narcoleptic, after all - there's just enough magic on each disc to redeem their reputation as enigmatic troubadours par excellence.--Paul Sullivan
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Gomez B-sides have always held far more interest for me than the albums. Back in the mid/late 90s I bought a lot of singles and would make my own compilations of the B-sides. Gomez are the only band I've continued to do that with and now my most listened-to stuff on the i-pod is the Gomez Bs playlist. Can't fault 'em. Even when it's fluff like The Cowboy Song, it's entertaining fluff.
Many commentators have suggested that the band have been progressively less interesting as each album has appeared and though I've enjoyed every one, there will always be a sentimental attachment to Bring It On and Liquid Skin. However, every time a single appears, the b-sides usually excite just as much as any Free to Run or Revolutionary Kind ever did. Just take a listen to Caravan from Girlshapedlovedrug. (Not that you'll find it here as the newest stuff isn't included on this Hut-years-only compilation!) But songs like Step Inside and Pop Juice stand shoulder to shoulder with the 'popular' favourites and this collection provides those who have not rushed out to grab the singles a chance to hear virtually two albums worth of bonus quality Gomez material. And that is a good thing.
This isn't a 'best of'. But it certainly contains loads of Gomez's best stuff. There may not be your favourite album tracks here but there are so many fantastic songs that you should hear. My own Gomez compilation may not have matched this one track-for-track but for the moment at least this saves me hours of deliberation over what to include. Do yourself a favour and give it a try - these songs deserve it.
Many commentators have suggested that the band have been progressively less interesting as each album has appeared and though I've enjoyed every one, there will always be a sentimental attachment to Bring It On and Liquid Skin. However, every time a single appears, the b-sides usually excite just as much as any Free to Run or Revolutionary Kind ever did. Just take a listen to Caravan from Girlshapedlovedrug. (Not that you'll find it here as the newest stuff isn't included on this Hut-years-only compilation!) But songs like Step Inside and Pop Juice stand shoulder to shoulder with the 'popular' favourites and this collection provides those who have not rushed out to grab the singles a chance to hear virtually two albums worth of bonus quality Gomez material. And that is a good thing.
This isn't a 'best of'. But it certainly contains loads of Gomez's best stuff. There may not be your favourite album tracks here but there are so many fantastic songs that you should hear. My own Gomez compilation may not have matched this one track-for-track but for the moment at least this saves me hours of deliberation over what to include. Do yourself a favour and give it a try - these songs deserve it.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
If, like me, you like your music original and by bands a little bit different from the normal rubbish out there, with a lead singer who can REALLY sing and who just write really good songs; then buy this album. You wont be disappointed.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
best compilation I've ever heard
8 Nov 2006
Format:Audio CD
I've been a Gomez fan since 2002. I heard "Shot Shot" on Radio Paradise, and I was instantly hooked. I loved the sax, the drums, the vocals, the funky stops and starts, the electronic feel, everything. I vowed to buy In Our Gun. Then, same radio station, different day, I heard "Rex Kramer", with its cool harmonica and guttural growl of a voice, and was convinced I'd discovered another amazingly cool band. Turns out that not only was that also Gomez, but it was on the same CD as "Shot Shot"! I went right out and bought In Our Gun that day. I was an instant fan, and have been ever since. True story. Another true story is what happened the day I gave Five Men in a Hut a listen. I was facing the laborious and boring task of putting away a couple cord of wood. It was going to take me a few hours, filling a cart, lugging it up a hill, stacking it in a shed. Luckily, I checked my mailbox and realized I had just received my copy of Five Men in a Hut via Amazon. I dug out my CD player (yes, no iPod, not yet) and actually ran to the store for some batteries. I popped in Five Men in a Hut to while away the hours. Oh. My. God. I was absolutely blown away. I love this band even more now, if that's possible. I think this album is so brilliant to me because I've only been a fan of their recent work, and their earlier canon has eluded me almost entirely. Not including their live album, I had heard only six of the studio tracks on this compilation. I had a lot of catching up to do. And what a treat that was! The best thing about the band is how many different styles they touch, while still sounding like Gomez. They skew rock, blues, electronica, psychedelia, and whatever strikes their fancy into their own brand of utterly cool music. What kind of music do you like? You'll like Gomez. Plain and simple. A few things struck me while listening, and dancing, and singing at the top of my voice as I put wood away. First, this does not even cover their whole catalog. Not to say it doesn't do them justice, because I think it does. It's a wonderful mix of their material, which sounds great together. Even their latest stuff, which I also love, and shows a similar songwriting formula at work, while reaching a maturity and consistency not realized on their early work, would sound great with all their older stuff. I can't wait for the career-spanner. Secondly, I love Ian and Tom's songs, but I thought I liked Ben's voice the best. Now I'm not sure. I love them all. In fact, some of Tom's song's are my favorites, and I never realized it. This band is truly amazing. They made my day of wood-stacking go by fast, and at the same time, garnered a fan for life. As the second disc ended, one of the newer tracks brought things to a close, "Diskoloadout". It brought back the same kind of funky horns and cool beat that made me love "Shot Shot" so much. I got the same adrenaline rush I did the first time I heard the band, and realized I had fallen for them all over again. Cheers, gentlemen. Can't wait to see what's next!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Buy it , burn it, and send copies to everyone you know. . .
24 Oct 2006
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
. . .and while you're at it get all of Gomez' stuff. Jesus they are one truly amazing band--three kickass vocalists, Ben Ottewell, Tom Gray and Ian Ball, who all play wonderfully quirky guitar to great effect, and then there's exceptional bass by Paul Blackburn and drums by Ollie Peacock. Their lyrics and arrangements are almost surreal, evoking a transplendent quality that points up their Beatles/Stones/Kinks/Who influences, while at the same time somehow establishing their sound as totally original. That they are not megastars is not only a true shame but it is also a sad commentary on what I think is the abysmal state of radio and the music industry in general.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Virgin must be losing it's touch
29 Mar 2007
Format:Audio CD
After listening to this album (over and over), I can't believe that How We Operate was the first time I'd ever heard them on the radio. I hope they go back to producing their own work- Gil Norton is brilliant, but so is Gomez. Now that they have broken through, I'd love to hear more of their layered work. It's wonderful how good this sounds with earphones on and no distractions.
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