In Our Nature

Second work by Swedish indie-folk player

Jose Gonzalez is a Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist, born in 1978 to Argentine parents. He is rather shy by character and does not reveal much information to the public about his childhood and teens. In 2003 Gonzalez released his debut album Veneer in Sweden. It brought him critical acclaim, but the album became avaluable to other European countries only in 2005. Soft melodies and classical guitar play with Spanish shades made the world adore him, though about 5 years ago such indie folk player would not be apreciated to the full strength. He is also known for being a guest vocalist to the Zero 7 band. After the album support tour Gonzalez took a rest for a while. In an interview he acknowledged that it was hard to write new material. The inspiration came in the image of religeous and political debate, and the artist decided to dedicate the entire second work to the human nature. In September, 2007 all 10 tracks of the new work titled In Our Nature were ready.

In Our Nature: tender ballads about human nature

The themes, worked out on this work, can be uderstood from the title. Though, unlike Veneer, In Our Nature dwells upon politics at least in two tracks: album opener How Low and Killing For Love. How Low is a pacifistic ballad, blaming wars and their extricators. Killing For Love is a low-key composition with the well-traced flamenco influence, in which Gonzalez sings that he sees no sense in love, which makes people harm or even kill others. Time To Send Someone Away is one more noticeable ballad, interesting with Gonzalez's collaboration with a famous Swedish hip hop DJ and producer Embee. As Veneer, In Our Nature also contains a cover. This time it is Massive Attack's Teardrop, which becomes almost unrecognizable in artist's arrangement. Down The Road is definelety the fastest of all ballads, and the longest one is Cycling Trivialities, and more does not mean worse this time. In the matter of sound In Our Nature has such praizeworthy and perfectly fitting to the atmosphere of the album innovations, as handclaps, backing vocals, percussions and synthesizer.

Jose Gonzalez: a person, who cares

In Our Nature is a work that no ways will disappoint the fans of Gonzalez. In the majority of aspects it is identical to Veneer. The sound remained almost the same: relaxing vocals, perfect acoustic guitar play, slow tempo ballads. But what is a little diasppointing - In Our Nature seems to be the succession of the debut work musically, not an independent album with noticeable progress in artist's creativity. Though as for the lyrics, Gonzalez grew up as the author without any doubt. He became rougher, his texts are more straightforward and even sharp in some places. Actually, In Our Nature shows, that Gonzalez cares for the things, happening on our planet: wars, poverty, deseases, climate changes... He says that a conscientious person can not ignore it all. In one of the interviews the artist said that writing In Our Nature he made up his mind that the main source of all our griefs is the simple human stupidity. Well, may be the album title hints on this quality that is in our nature?