We listen to music to feel; this has always been true. And each of us is looking for certain kinds of things to feel — fun, powerful, free, sad. We find artists whose sound corresponds with how we want to feel, and we hang on their every word if we’re lucky enough to find the right one. And this has become harder and harder nowadays, and it feels like many have lost the will to look. We know more about some artists’ lives and personalities than we do about their last album or what any of their songs even meant.
But if you’re willing to look and put in the time, you will find what you’re looking for. Jose Gonzalez is one such artist for me. If you were to give him a genre, it’s indie rock, but with his heavy strumming and quiet, personal voice, listening to his albums have become quite the experience. And even though it has been four years since his last album, I still have the taste of songs like “Heartbeats” and “Crosses” on my mind. His voice calls and echoes with the help of synthesizers and has a haunting ethereal quality that at its worse is clean and mesmerizing and at its absolute best echoes his forbearer Nick Drake.
While there isn’t a song quite at the caliber of “Crosses,” “How Low,” “Down the Line” and “Killing For Love” are each seminal pieces in their own right, and like the whole album, shows Gonzalez reaching for a variety of uses for his cold, passionate vocals. Gonzalez’s tendency toward repetitive lyrics persists but rarely manages to annoy, simply leave the listener wanting to hear more of his turns of phrase, such as the titular song “In Our Nature” calling out “put down your sword … open up your doors.”
Also, like the last album’s now classic cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats,” this album has another piece of very recognizable electronica coverage, “Teardrop” by Massive Attack. For any watchers of House out there, you’ve heard this song at the beginning of each episode going on three years now.
And while Gonzalez is as hypnotic as ever, his track order here feels a bit awkward, as all of the harder, more stepped-up tracks are in the first half, and all of the very slow and somber pieces are in the second half. With little mixing between the two, the album carries you way up through “Teardrop,” and then jarringly drops you into somber melodies.
Like many artists, Gonzalez claimed in interviews beforehand that this song says that about war, and this song says that about religion, but what engages you isn’t the symbolism behind the artist, but the quality of his art and the organization of his poignant playing and lyrics. Besides, all rock songs sound like they’re about love and death anyway.
Drawing on previous, greater artists like Johnny Cash and Neil Young’s ability to make one man and his guitar sound personal, Gonzalez’s voice reverberates off the walls in your room, and his lack of accompaniment gives him more complex, reflective pieces than larger, consuming pieces — the latter of which he explores in the final track “Circling Trivialities.”
Gonzalez has so very much potential, most of which he actively uses, but if in the future he could avoid four year lags between albums and beef up his lyrical repertoire, perhaps he’ll be able to find his way onto a few more people’s radars. For now, however, his spellbinding voice and instrumentation are enough to keep bringing me back, if only so I can sit back and let his soulful presence fill the room.
