A New Tide

Ten years after scoring the Mercury Prize for its debut, "Bring It On," and three years after its 2006 breakout, "How We Operate," Gomez ups the musical ante with "A New Tide," a brilliant 11-song collection of lyrical jewels embellished by colorful and unusual textural arrangements that a dynamics-loving jazz band could admire. With its sixth and most mature studio outing, the five-piece rock ensemble crafts fetching melodies that serve as the terra firma for confident shape-shifting explorations. Cases in point: "Mix" blends an acoustic-guitar-strummed simplicity with electronic slurs of psychedelia; "Win Park Slope" opens with a Delta-blues twang that transforms into pockets of cello-viola classical sway and a rock-fused chorus; "Natural Reaction" bolts from straight-up song into fluctuating tempo and key; "Other Plans" develops as a suite with a wheeze organ hue; and "Sunset" closes the album with a freaky avant swirl of clarinets and alto saxophone. —Dan Ouellette