Thirteen years ago, Gomez were the hottest of hot properties. Their debut album, Bring It On, had just scooped the 1998 Mercury Music Prize, record sales were booming, and the Southport five-piece were quickly gaining a passionate and wide-reaching fanbase. Liquid Skin, their follow-up, was equally lauded. These two albums, exemplars of late-90s British indie-rock, remain the works for which the band is largely still known. Since then, their records have found mixed success; unfairly abandoned by the so-called ‘alternative’ music press who once championed them, they continue to turn out solid albums and still have a sizeable, devoted following. Whatever’s On Your Mind, the group’s seventh studio release, should do nothing to hurt that rapport, and should also remind everyone of just how good Gomez really are.

As is often the case, bands who find early success often struggle to maintain the same level of popularity – Arctic Monkeys’ steep musical decline should offer a potent cautionary tale – but for Gomez it seems to be through little fault of their own.

Gripping the nation (and making some strides Stateside) with infectious tracks like ‘Whippin’ Piccadilly’ (Bring It On) and ‘California’ (Liquid Skin), their grasp on stardom has admittedly slipped somewhat, but since those heady days they’ve remained an eminently listenable outfit. Whatever’s On Your Mind contains tunes at least the equal of many of those earlier songs, ‘Just As Lost As You’ and ‘That Wolf’ producing catchy, inventive choruses, closer ‘X-Rays’ combining simple, effective lyrics with an infectious beat to finish the album with a bang.

What’s also refreshing to hear, in an age where singers either drastically regionalise or Americanise their singing voices, is that no matter who is on the mic – Ian Ball, Ben Ottewell and Tom Gray all take turns leading and harmonising – they sing with an honesty, an earnestness and a freedom you won’t find in the false Cock-er-ny accents of London indie bands or Manchester acts who sound like Liam Gallagher with the flu.

Lyrically, Gomez sit somewhere between Belle & Sebastian and Elbow, imbuing lines with a peculiar Britishness (hear the stiff-upper-lip refrain of ‘Options’ frequently stating that, despite the troubles detailed, “it’s ok / at least I’ve got options”) and a conversational tone which both sprinkles in distinctive slang and unfussily paints pictures of situations: “they are blowhards / you’re a bleeding heart / please don’t look back / to the very start” (‘Our Goodbye’).

However, despite the occasionally brilliant interplay between vocals and lyrics, it’s the melodies and beats which stand out. Olly Peacock’s drums and Paul Blackburn’s bass have developed a symbiotic relationship, ebbing and flowing perfectly in unison: they bring a funky backbeat to ‘Song In My Heart’ and provide the force which drives ‘Equalize’. In fact, the entire group have a brilliant understanding of rounded dynamics and can create some irrepressibly catchy riffs. The same five members who played on Bring It On are the same members who play on Whatever’s On Your Mind: this long-term relationship between the band has clearly paid dividends as they sound unified, and play with a sense of collective purpose often missing from more fractured groups.

Yet Whatever’s On Your Mind doesn’t quite perfect the sound which has gotten Gomez to this point. Whilst it’s clear that the group enjoy what they play – something which really comes across on repeated listens – there are lingering issues, namely slight instrumental overwroughtness in places and a feeling that there are new ideas which are somewhat subdued. Gomez use brass as deftly and intelligently as any band working, but the use of string accompaniments feels a bit much, and in a few places an overabundance of sounds take a track from a complex, interesting song to a mélange of instruments.

Equally apparent, however, is Gomez’s musical nous. One of extremely few bands whose guitar lines still sound fresh, not recycled, they make interesting music at a time when innovation is depressingly at a premium. Perhaps their experience has taught them that imitation will get you nowhere, or maybe it’s their undying enthusiasm for their craft which drives them on; either way, Gomez are still making music which far surpasses those many groups who have pinched their ideas in the last decade-and-a-half.

While most bands lurch from musical brilliance to atrocity and back, Gomez never slip below solid, and Whatever’s On Your Mind is an enjoyable, catchy reminder that consistency is a virtue, not a curse.