It’s been 23 years since José González went from being a doctoral student in molecular biology with a penchant for music to becoming a full-time musician with the release of his solo debut VENEER. The fact that his songs appeared in international advertising and style-defining series and films such as “OC California” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” also helped.
Since then, González has released three more albums solo and two with his band Junip. And he focused on his strengths: his soft, meditative voice, his hypnotic guitar playing and his storyteller qualities. These also come into play again in AGAINST THE DYING OF THE LIGHT, where he ponders with a lot of reverberation in his voice in the title track, in the best tradition of protest songs, about the current spiral of hate determined by algorithms, or on the “Losing Game (Sick)”, which is quite driving for his standards, and settles accounts with so-called AI – even if González always seems a little too dreamy to really drive the audience onto the streets.
But that’s okay: the fight can have many facets. And José González has found his task in reminding us that life can also contain unbridled beauty. And with songs like the magically beautiful Spanish-language “Pajarito,” there can be power even in the quiet.
