Gomez

Any band that can edge out the Verve and Massive Attack to bag a Mercury Music Prize for Album of the Year must be something special. That's exactly what Gomez did in '98 with Bring It On. The five-piece straight outta Southport took blues-based rock into fresh territory with rich, mellow strummers like "Whippin' Piccadilly".

The second half of our Gomez primer contains their debut single, "78 Stone Wobble" (1998), as well as first-rate rarities, like the pre-Mellotron version of "Rhythm & Blues Alibi" and "Caravan", from 2006's Girlshapedlovedrug EP. Through these tracks you can trace the life of Gomez, from youthful brilliance to statesman-like authority.

Legend has it that the band got its name when, yet to decide on a moniker, a sign was left for a friend called "Gomez" on the door at an early gig in Leeds, 1996: people saw the word, it stuck, and it now represents the finest in modern bluesy rock. A track like "Charley Patton Songs", from the multi-layered 2006 album How We Operate is emblematic of the outfit: they nod (in the title's name-check) to American blues roots, but deliver something vital, complex, challenging, and utterly contemporary. Make no mistake: these lads are quality.