José González Releases Fifth Album, Shares New Single ‘You & We’
Against The Dying Light is José González’s first album in five years.
Image Ellika Henriksson
Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist José González’s fifth studio album, Against The Dying Light, is now out via Mute Records (US/Canada) and City Slang (rest of the world).
Serving as a sister volume to 2021’s acclaimed Local Valley, González’s new record is a commentary on humanity and is inspired by the forward-thinking work of Jonathan Haidt, Liv Boeree, Yuval Harari and Steven Pinker.
“Against The Dying Of The Light is a collection of songs reflecting on humanity,” says González. “Who we are – tribes of sentient apes with stories that sometimes are incompatible with each other and tools that could eventually lead to dystopia or extinction. It’s also a reflection of how we create hurdles to human flourishing by stubbornly clinging to dogmatic ideologies, where people follow dudes who pretend to know shit they don’t.
“As a concerned world citizen, I wrote these songs as a reflection of our times. Times of amazing progress, but also worrying backslides to dogmatic tribal ideologies and an extremely uncertain future. These are songs about how we can navigate humanity towards flourishing on an individual and a collective level. They can be listened to just for the sounds, harmonies, and rhythms, but the lyrics are meant to inspire people to engage and take action by collaborating to solve collective problems. For humanism and enlightenment values and against the dying of the light.”
To coincide with the release of Against The Dying Of The Light, González has shared latest single ‘You & We’. This one is classic González, with the finger picker crooning over a simple yet engaging guitar riff.
“Is ‘You & We’ a love song?” asks González. “Or does it concern the idea that an ideology focused only on the in-group is incomplete? The listener can decide. While writing it, I was inspired by gospel, soul, and choir music. I was listening to a lot of Nina Simone at the time.”
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Few artists have made an impact as long-lasting as José González since the turn of the century. The award-winning songwriter, singer and guitarist rose to fame in 2003 with his debut album Veneer, an 11-track folk pop album that went global thanks to González’s cover of The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’.
Three more albums followed – In Our Nature (2007), Vestiges & Claws (2015) and Local Valley (2021) – along with several EPs, while González also released two albums with his folk rock band Junip.
González has also announced a run of shows across North America and Europe to celebrate the release of Against The Dying Light, with an Australian tour hopefully on the horizon.
Against The Dying Light by Jose González is out now. Listen here.
