Weatherboards

In Our Nature
José González
Mute, 2007
3 stars

Jose's 2003 album Veneer took a couple of years, a brilliant Knife cover and a few thousand coloured bouncy balls racing down a steep San Francisco street to gain international acclaim. That album was a great lesson in understatement - it sounded just like a guy with a guitar and a soft voice, sitting next to you on the sofa (or in the passenger seat of your car, or the end of your bed, depending on where you played the CD) and nothing more - it needed nothing more. In Our Nature is cut from the same musical stump - gorgeously low-fi guitar folk with Jose's trademark accented vocals adding the final touches. This time around he covers Massive Attack's Teardrop, though the album's highlight is Down The Line, one of his more poppy efforts. In Our Nature is a good album but, without the "wow, who is this guy" factor of Veneer, it comes across a little beige in comparison. Then again, going by the covers of both releases, beige suits him just fine.

Artwork: A

Published in mX, Monday 17 September 2007.