Veneer

José González is an artist that I stumbled upon in the iTunes store while poking around in the folk section and boy did this come out of no where. I can't say to much about the artist himself because I haven't really looked into is music aside from this one album. I can say, however, that the album I am reviewing here called Veneer is absolutely amazing. The whole less is more approach is used all to well with this album. In it's essence it is an acoustic, singer songwriter album and its one of those albums that seems so fragile and quiet that it could fall apart at any moment, not unlike albums like Nick Drakes 'Pink Moon' and Iron and Wines 'The Sea And The Rhythm.' His voice hides behind his guitar as it plays simple picked melodies. This is matched perfectly with the scaled back production quality of the songs which makes it all the more hypnotic with its lo-fi sounding recording and subtle reverb.

His song writing is what drew me in with its dark and thoughtful lyrics about the world. At first glance at his name I had almost expected the music to be sung in spanish but it is all english. Again, I don't really know anything about the artist which is kind of nice really. It leaves this anonymous feeling to the record as I listen to it which is nice sometimes. The music on here seems perfect for any relaxing moment in life. I walked through a busy downtown street listening to this and as I listened to it the world around me seemed to slow down a bit which was a welcome change in the middle of a work day. It's uplifting in one of those quiet secretive kind of ways, you know what I mean?

For anyone looking for a chance to close their eyes and relax for a while I would suggest you check out this amazing album.

Heres a link to the album in iTunes: