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Paste Magazine

While the mostly mid-tempo, mostly acoustic continues the trajectory from college rock to radio-ready adult alternative, Gomez has yet to succumb to anything resembling blandness. The album’s best songs are its most experimental, which will continue to frustrate those who want these Southport boys to more frequently embrace the strange.

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PopMatters

Album-closer 'Sunset Gates' gives Ottewell the final word, one he shares with promenading stand-up bass, pulsing guitar counterpoints, and a climactic jam crescendo driven by Peacock’s eternal fills and blaring horns that sputter like wounded hawks plunging from the hardscrabble sky. And so ends another Gomez album, a very fine one.

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Billboard

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.

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Hartford Courant

Their latest, A New Tide, is their most accessible set yet.

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New Musical Express

On the laidback, spaced-out strength of A New Tide, they’re still as pleasantly beguiling as they were 11 years ago.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Recorded in Chicago and Charlottesville, Virginia, A New Tide cobbles together elements of those scenes, but it ultimately lacks identity; it strives for diversity at the cost of imagination and quality songwriting.

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Spin

A New Tide also contains some of the band's most straightforward material yet.

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No Ripcord

There is some nice arrangements here, even if too many of the tracks sound like they belong on some type of chillout/easy listening compilation.

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Mojo

Mostly A New Tide is high on big tunes and low on character. [May 2009, p.108]

Uncut

Hints of "The Basement Tapes" glimmer through pieces like 'Win Park Slope' or 'Airstream Driver,' while John Martyn and Nick Drake ride again in the mystic folkery of 'Little Pieces.' [May 2009, p.86]

Prefix Magazine

It may be the weakest album in their catalog.

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Pitchfork

It's a showy album with very little to show.

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Slant Magazine

New Tide continues Gomez's struggle to accurately identify its sound after the initial boon of 1998's Mercury Prize, further wedging them into a narrow void between two unbecoming styles.

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musicOMH.com

Be that as it may, it is the band's recent failure to effectively collaborate, and for these 11 tracks to properly mesh, that has fostered the mediocrity inherent in A New Tide.

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Q Magazine

The likes of 'Win Park Slope' are pleasant, but also disappontingly unremarkable. [May 2009, p.112]

Austin Chronicle

The kinder, gentler, safe-for-consumption-by-sorority-girls version is fine, but it's merely entertaining where it used to be enchanting.

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Observer Music Monthly

A New Tide is a respectable affair reminiscent of the Beta Band at best (Airstream Driver) and David Gray at its coffee-table worst, courtesy of vocalist Ian Ball's folksy bleat.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Mean MrMonkey gave it a5:
Their least interesting album. It is straightforward to the point of being bland in some spots. Seems destined for background music on network dramas. They are so much better than this.

soren k gave it a3:
What happened? These guys used to be interesting. It sounds as if they've decided their drug of choice is a cocktail of prozac and valium with this latest offering. The only exception is Airstream Driver. The only way this album may be worth the money is as background music to help you fall asleep.

Oliver C gave it an8:
In response to "Not sure why the critics didn't care for it." by AM Driver, because they are exactly that. Critics. If they said anything good about the album they'd wouldn't be called critics. I don't get why we listen to critics in the first place. Aren't there people out there that do the opposite? Anyhow, this album is one hell of a grower! Being a huge fan of their frist 2 albums I wasn't initially over impressed by A New Tide upon first hearing but after the 2nd and 3rd time through I love it. It's by no means anything too close to Liquid Skin or Bring It On but it does have some fantastic original Gomez panache going on. If you've like any of Gomez' material, give it a listen, well, a few, it just gets better and better.

Ray B gave it a10:
I only ever vote when i hate an album or I love it. Love it gets a 10, hate it might get a dont care to a 1. This album is great. I play it all the time in the car and I play it loudly. Thank you GOMEZ. They are, in my opinion the new Beatles. I can't ever wait for a new album. The reviewer who rate this less than 9 are probably tone deaf and quite possibly insensitive. Only listen to Gomez if you like music. Otherwise, stick to watching football. Yes, I said the new Beatles. Every song is a hit, every song will be a classic, every song is an inspiration. Only the lyrics are uniformly great. Oh, I like the album.

m fields gave it an8:
I think it is important not to take one's sharing of musical tastes too seriously, especially when discussing them in a forum such as this. This is doubly true when writing about Gomez. This band has always been playful, and has retained a willingness to experiment, at times at the expense of linearity or popular tastes. This is their merit. I'm not sure why we must fault them for this on "A New Tide." Once you see them in concert, it becomes crystal clear that they are a terrific, powerful rock 'n roll band. This particluar album is softer, mellower and groovier most of their corpus, but it is still fun. The tide might be low-fi, but the moon that rules the waters is still Gomez.

AM Driver gave it an8:
It may not be the rocker their last release was, but if you like mid-tempo songwriting you'll enjoy it. Better than anticipated. Not sure why the critics didn't care for it.

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