Combining lush melodies with Spanish guitar technique and a soothing voice, Jose Gonzalez evokes songs of another generation, an older one, where serious songwriting mattered and the troubadour traveled the country singing to small coffee shop crowds and at whiskey swilling bars. An acoustic album, his songs are pretty and spare of anything else but Jose, who sticks to acoustic guitar and added hints of percussion to break things up.
Born in Sweden and of Argentinean heritage, the groundwork that his album has includes tinges of tropicalia and folk music that his fans might not have seen coming from a mile away. Veneer is a shockingly beautiful album from a man with a background in the rock. And if you only knew it, then you’d understand how much of a change this album is from what he has done. From his days of playing bass in a rock band called Back Against The Wall (think Black Flag’s sound), to trying his hand at hardcore and indie rock, where he’s been and this album are as different as Nick Drake and Led Zeppelin. While being influenced by the former, I’m sure he has covered the latter.
This album is a beautiful group of songs with literate lyrics and a melancholy vibe. He may not be coming with an artillery of metal songs that you might have come to expect from him, but he is more than enough of a songsmith to steal your girl and sing to her sweetly. |