José González Shares New Single ‘A Perfect Storm’
‘A Perfect Storm’ is the third single taken from José González upcoming fifth studio album, Against The Dying Light.
Image Ellika Henriksson
‘A Perfect Storm’ is the third single taken from Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist José González’s much-anticipated fifth studio album, Against The Dying Light, out Friday 27 March via Mute Records (US/Canada) and City Slang (rest of the world).
A gentle finger picker inspired by everything from West Saharan desert blues and post-hardcore heroes Quicksand to experimental rock combo Battles, the track addresses the “race to lose control”, a reference to big corporations that are trying to create the best AI programs as quickly as possible without thinking of the consequences this could have on our lives in the future.
“‘A Perfect Storm’ is about how we ourselves are creating the conditions for a more and more turbulent future,” says José González. “Compared to natural risks, these are man-made, and therefore not random.”
Hailed as a sister album to 2021’s acclaimed Local Valley, González’s new record is inspired by the likes of Jonathan Haidt, Liv Boeree, Yuval Harari and Steven Pinker and explores the human condition, moral philosophy, Game Theory and more.
“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.”
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José González is an award-winning artist who has been writing music and touring the globe for more than two decades.
Rising to prominence in 2003 with the release of his debut album Veneer, which includes González’s cover of The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’.
The award-winning creative has released three more albums since – In Our Nature (2007), Vestiges & Claws (2015) and Local Valley (2021) – and several EPs, while also releasing albums with his 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.
‘A Perfect Storm’ by José González is out now. Listen here. Against The Dying Light Friday 27 March via Mute Records (US/Canada) and City Slang (rest of the world). Pre-order/pre-save here.
