Jose Gonzalez - Veneer

Jose Gonzalez was mentioned in my last post for his cover of The Knife's Heartbeats (iTMS link). He does cover the song to great effect, and his effort is on Veneer. However, Gonzalez is about as far as you can get from The Knife. Deep Cuts is big and loud (literally) and experimental and weird. Veneer is a CD full of simple-yet-complex arpeggiated acoustic guitar tunes. You're for the most part just listening to him and his guitar, and the songwriting is there enough for this to work. Gonzalez's music fades into the background. The music is very good but it's quiet and unassuming, and none of the tracks are horribly infectious (save Heartbeats and maybe Deadweight on Velveteen). The songs are a touch melancholy. You're not breaking any new ground when you listen to it - it's almost like listening to Simon and Garfunkel, except more if they had a kid that combined the best of their respective talents - but that's part of the appeal. I honestly waver on it a bit. Sometimes I feel the album is warm and comforting, and sometimes it seems almost as if Gonzalez stapled his heart to his sleeve; that is, cold and honest. Overwhelmingly, it's a disc that you want to curl up in an easy chair and listen to while drinking some nice green tea or French press coffee. And then you want to swear at it because, at 30 minutes long, it'll have ended before you finish your drink. Definitely worth a shot. (Try it from iTMS.)