Alex Gomez - Warm Sensations Unsigned By Stephanie Nolasco

If there were only one word to describe Alex Gomez's third album, Warm Sensations, it would be bad. Not bad as in the androgynous-looking bad boy with his neatly gelled back hair that cuts class to screw the preacher's daughter on the backseat of his Porsche. It's bad as in the thousands of American Idol contestants claiming to be the next one hit wonder. Warm Sensations isn't a first draft attempt to turn on listeners with irregular electric guitar tempos and hippy-dippy lyrics on getting high with a girl named Rain. Instead, Warm Sensations is the cheap bag of weed that offers no trip.     There isn't much to say about the man himself. Gomez is Houston-bred, has performed at Bluestock in 2000 and recorded his first album Always Never in SugarHill Studios, famously known for making blues-influenced rock musician Janis Joplin legendary. Although Warm Sensations does contain Gomez's raspy vocals coming from his whisky-smothered throat, the music isn't memorable. The first track “Bayou City” unexpectedly starts off with Gomez crying out unclear lyrics. The sound is that of a frightening animal that licked too many leftover Alabama Slammers from a local honky-tonk, howling for someone to shoot him out of his misery. Yes, it is that bad. There is too much whining, too much guitar jabbing and too much yelling from Gomez.     Fortunately in the fifth track, “Jellyroll Cupcake,” Gomez's voice improves slightly in cutting out the excess pitchy wailing, adding a more Southern drawl to a fast-pace guitar. Yet, it's songs like “Girls Go Wild” that makes listeners wonder why he felt that Warm Sensations could be in anyone's CD collection. Gomez may have learned a thing or two in high school, as he claims in this track, but it wasn't music. The guitar arrangement makes the disc sound as if it were skipping and Gomez's voice remains reedy and weak.     Alex Gomez's Warm Sensations isn't anything that it claims to be. Stoner blues rock isn't meant to be beaten down by scattered rhythms coming from one instrument. The weakest point of this album is the singer's voice as he attempts to combine cringing pitches and lyrics about booze, sex and hot girls from down south. Expect no trip, not even a buzz from a musician who can't deliver the heat that his album promises.

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Published on: 2007-07-11 (1009 reads)