In many ways Gomez‘s 1999 album Liquid Skin was the one that made the band. While not quite as revered as Mercury Music Prize winning debut album Bring It On, it was the first album they made as professional musicians. Let loose in the studio for the first time, they were able to broaden their scope without limitations. Now, 20 years after its release, the band is preparing to release a celebratory anniversary edition of the album, complete with previously unheard material, including the nearly forgotten song, “Someday”.
While previously released demos from the 20 year anniversary edition, “Nobody’s Girl” and “Throwin’ Myself Away” would have fit perfectly on Liquid Skin, given a little spit and polish, “Someday” is something else entirely. With its shuffling percussion, repetitive blues-funk bass riff, simple ’90s looping electronics, and the Edge-esque jangly guitar, it has the feel of a song in a state of flux, something akin to U2’s famous demo tapes for the Achtung Baby album. Given time, you can imagine Gomez pulling the riffs into different shapes or re-appropriating the vocal rhythm for something new entirely, but time is not something the band thought a lot about in those early days.
With only 518 days separating debut album Bring It On and Liquid Skin, the band were clearly not short of material. It’s no surprise, then, that some songs got lost along the way. This may explain the collective band amnesia surrounding the origins of the song as singer/guitarist Ian Bell explains.
“When we were compiling stuff for this special deluxe thing we’re doing here, I raided a bunch of CDs from my dad’s attic, he’d kept a bunch of stuff. I think when I moved to the States, some of my things stayed in England and my dad got it and shoved it up in Les’ Loft, as it’s known. When I was going through a bunch of the CDs just looking for stuff, alternate mixes what have you, I came across this tune that I personally have no recollection of whatsoever.
So it’s possible I’m not involved in it, or it’s possible I was but I forgot it. But it’s definitely a Tom song, I could tell that much. It’s definitely us, our band. I thought it was fun, I’d be curious to know if any of the other guys have memory of it. Tom probably would, but my memory of it is definitely blank. Which is not surprising really considering it was 20 years ago and we did do a lot of recording back then – it wasn’t easy to keep track of everything.’
As it blinks back into the light, “Someday” serves as a fascinating insight into a gradually evolving band.