Artist: José González
Album: Against The Dying Of The Light
Label: City Slang
Link: https://jose-gonzalez.com/
Genre: Pop, Folk
The José González we are talking about here is, of course, the musician, born in 1978 to Argentine political refugee parents in Sweden. He took his first musical steps in several hardcore punk bands, though he also sang in a choir and quickly traded his electric guitar for an acoustic one, which better suited his influences, notably the Cuban Silvio Rodríguez. He released his debut album in 2003, and the growing importance of his musical commitments led him to abandon a PhD in biochemistry. He then collaborated with numerous groups, and his music was initially used as much for advertising as for film and video games.
Through the lyrics of his fifth studio album, Against The Dying Of The Light, José González almost asks us what remains today of the Age of Enlightenment. In any case, he prompts us to question the ways of thinking that are becoming commonplace in the Western world. To do so, he arms himself with his reassuring voice and his guitar, from which he quietly plucks the notes. This album strikes a balance between light and shadow, offering a folk sound that could just as easily draw inspiration from Bert Jansch, Leonard Cohen, or Simon & Garfunkel—though it lacks the vocal harmonies of the latter duo, even if the studio setting occasionally helps alleviate the artist’s solitude.
A few ethereal percussion sounds and claps in the background, resonances from the guitar’s body that fill the soundstage beyond the speakers, and a voice that is always soothing; this is the setup that highlights the Swedish guitarist’s talent. The instrument has volume, and the sound unfolds to better envelop us. The strings are indeed nylon and the guitar is made of wood, which comes across with perfect naturalness on a high-quality system or high-performance speakers. No excess is needed to draw us into listening to Against The Dying Of The Light, which knows how to combine a definition pleasing to audiophiles with a warmth made for long listening sessions by music lovers.