ATO

Minus the brazenly ambitious nature of 2009’s A New Tide, it’s possible to overlook the solid consistency displayed by Gomez, who utilizes guitar rock that toys with convention in a way that would have made a certain foursome from Liverpool, England proud. The abundance of textures percolating within the songs on Whatever’s on Your Mind gives the album strength. The song “Options” exhibits the virtues of this approach as it plays out over a soundtrack that shifts and rolls from acoustic strumming, bursts of saxophone, creamy harmonies and a pop sheen that reminds us no matter how the number’s dressed up. Ian Ball and Ben Ottewell trade lead vocals, moving from complex yet never cluttered arrangements on “Just as Lost as You” to the lush “Song In My Heart.”