Lying in your bed at night, you place your ear buds in and let the sound of crescendoing acoustic guitar riffs stream through your eardrums. In a perfectly audible raspy voice you hear what sounds like a lullaby being sung to a slow folk tune and you welcome sleep and stellar dreams.
Sometime in the past few weeks, I’ve noticed my curbing enthusiasm for heavy rock and a steady inclination toward softer melodies of Iron & Wine, Ben Howard, The Civil Wars and other groups and artists that would consider themselves to be composed of a folk-ier indie sound. Wanting to find more artists with this sound, I searched through Spotify and was more than blessed to stumble upon José González. The indie folk artist of Argentinian and Swedish background has released just two albums as a solo artist, but the poignant substance of his songs makes the albums "Veneer" (2003) and "In Our Nature" (2007) evergreen.
Released in 2003 in Sweden and 2005 in the U.S., the album Veneer’s track “Heartbeats” gained the ninth spot in UK music charts almost instantly after its release; it’s romantic lyrics and soothing melody was received with positive response. Described as “low voiced, serious, and introverted music” on González’s official website, the soft acoustic tracks focus on universal themes and feelings as González “didn’t want to write about love” solely.
Also a member of the band Junip, José González continues his use of acoustic rhythms with melancholy verses in a perfect fusion of a dream-like and passionate feel. González is a must for your indie folk playlist and nighttime lullaby.
