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Gomez

Whatever's on Your Mind (ATO)

Reviewed by Melanie Haupt, Fri., Sept. 16, 2011

ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews

Gomez

Whatever's on Your Mind (ATO)

We're supposed to be impressed that Gomez, with members now scattered from Great Britain to Los Angeles, did all of the collaboration for this seventh album via the Internet. This innovative approach to making music did not extend itself to the actual music. Case in point: "Equalize" could have been on any of the group's six previous albums, with Ben Ottewell's grubby bluesman's growl set atop a clanging, energetic melody. Also present are the fuzzed-out crowd pleasers ("I Will Take You There," "X-Rays"), a bile-inducing love song that belongs on the slush pile ("Song in My Heart"), and introspective-yet-grooving filler ("Options," "The Place and the People"). Whatever's on Your Mind is as scattershot as the band that made it. (6:15pm, Austin Ventures stage)

**

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