This album is utterly outstanding, has it really been ten years since their Mercury Music Prize-winning album “Bring It On” was released?

Listening to A New Tide is like finally meeting up with an old, well-loved but long-lost friend. I want to buy it a beer and catch up as the missing years peel effortlessly away.

Gomez’s new sound is mature and thick. Although it is densely influenced, (track one’s The Mix is very reminiscent of The Smashing Pumpkins album Adore with its heady mix of soaring melodies and soft vocals) it still remains original. The trademark gravel-in-honey harmonies of vocalists Ian Ball and Ben Ottewell, reassure the listener that although they have a new sound, the heart of Gomez still pounds unmistakably through each new song.

Listening to tracks like If I Ask You Nicely and Natural Reaction, its impossible not to feel peaceful inside. It’s like liquid summer; you can immerse yourself entirely into its warmth and curl up into the sounds. Or, if you’re feeling a bit less introspective, Airstream Driver is indulgently phat, gritty and funky; you’ll find it impossible to sit still when you hear it.

The tracks are toe-curlingly beautiful; they’re so defined and polished. A New Tide is clearly a devoted labour of love; every phrase, stanza and harmony has been delicately sculpted to ensure the optimum result. If you’d told me they’d been in the studio for the last ten years writing this album, I’d believe you, it’s that complex.

In fact its creation took place over the course of just one year, across two continents; the early tracks being written and recorded individually then combined online. This multiple-exposure approach results in a fantastic tapestry of sound and rhythm, which was then tended to in Virginia USA, by “Iron and Wine” producer Brian Deck.

His influence is clear throughout. All the songs on the album are inarguably complete yet have a soul-wrenching rawness, familiar to Iron and Wine tracks. There’s no forceful and unnecessary elbowing of overproduction, Deck is clearly very good at acknowledging just when to stop the creative process when it is at its peak, and his presence is constructive without being overbearing.

Put this album on loud next time you feel flat or strung out, and I guarantee you’ll be bopping about with an idiotic grin on your face within minutes…

Gomez –A New Tide is released on April 6th by Eat Sleep Records