José González - In Our Nature

Four years following his debut full-length album, Veneer (2003), José González's second full-length recording In Our Nature (2007) came out. The Swedish guitar and vocalist of Argentinian decent performs with Erik Bodin on percussion and Yukimi Nagamo providing backing vocals. Mostly you are getting pretty straight forward guitar and vocal music, with some layering of vocals, minimal percussion, and some synth work as well. González is still an active member of the band Junip, and reportedly a new album by the band will be out soon. His solo work might be his best output though, as it allows for his amazing guitar writing to shine through, mostly because it carriers the burden of being the primary instrument played on most of his work. One of the best songs on this album happens to be a cover. Massive Attack's "Teardrop", as done by González, carriers more outward emotion than any other song on a moody, introverted album, and is beautifully done. It is the only cover on the album, which is good, as González's own songwriting is strong enough that he does not need to rely on using covers to fill out his solo works, but it is a tastefully done cover nonetheless.


José González - "How Low"

The first song on the album. One of the best songs with regard to his guitar playing. The guitar picking/plucking is used to create an offbeat rhythm that I don't find typical of solo work or folk or what have you, almost math rock-like in a way. González's singing comes across as quite unique for me, maybe its his Latin American roots, it seems to give a distinct ring to his voice. The level and inflection of his voice is perfectly matched with the guitar tone. About two minutes into the song, the vocals cease and an enjoyable guitar led solo steers its way over the guitar rhythm quietly closing the song.


José González - "In Our Nature"

This title track, "In Our Nature", starts out with a bouncy guitar and percussion beat. Another defining characteristic in this album, and Gonzalez's work in general, is the lyrical content. Easily he could have written two albums worth of love longing or relationship based material. That would have been more typical of similarly sounding musicians in this genre, but instead his focus is often more toward social aim, and social change more specifically.

Put down your sword.
Send home your dogs.
Open up your doors.
Let down your guard.

It's in our nature.
It's in our nature.
It's in our nature.
It's in our nature.

Put down your gun.
Ignore the alarm.
Open up your heart.
Let down your guard.

Once again the tone of the music fits the lyrics and vocals perfectly, and vice-versa. The song builds up briefly towards the end, following the spoken "Its in our nature" line mixed in the back of the track, which moves on to the final chorus, and as quickly as the song rises it turns quietly to an end.

The artwork for this album and his previous release Veneer, is done by Elias Araya. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find much out there about Araya, or his works, though a Google image search turns up a few interesting works. Back in regards to González, it looks like it may be another four years between albums, which is too bad, but a new Junip album would do much to help pass the time. I read an interview of González, where it was noted that he played in a hardcore band when he was younger, and he identified Sick of it All as one of his favorite bands at that time, musically there isn't much influence here, but one wonders if the political/social aspect of that type of music had an influence on him. Here's a link to his U.S./North America online store, and there are links to other online stores through his website, if you are interested in that merch stuff and cds.