(City Slang/Shock)

José González augments his sound, with pleasant results

You can’t say Swedish folk crooner José González doesn’t take any risks, even if it sometimes feels as though he plays it safe too often. He is, after all, a man who made his name with an off-kilter folk cover of The Knife’s woozy synth ballad Heartbeats and whose second album, In Our Nature, pivoted around another intriguing cover (this time Massive Attack’s Teardrop). It is, therefore, brave of him to include no cover songs on the début album of his trio, Junip, instead cleaving to his own songwriting skills. Fortunately for Junip, González’s songwriting has matured to the position where gimmicky cover versions aren’t required to pique the audience’s interest – lead single Rope & Summit bounces along on an airy guitar line that’s at odds with the heavy lyrics (about climbing a mountain and the dangers of falling). González’s bandmates, Elias Araya (drums) and Tobias Winterkorn (organ) function much as the members of Erlend Řye’s band The Whitest Boy Alive do, fleshing out González’s sound with mostly light touches (although the dirty, buzzing organ panning around opening track In Every Direction is perhaps a little too much). Of course, this album will mostly appeal to González’s established fans, and they’ll be pleased to know that his trademark reedy alto voice and nylon-stringed guitar are prominent here; those turned off by the insubstantiality of González’s previous efforts may find they can get some purchase on the stronger songwriting and thicker sound on display on Fields.

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CHAD PARKHILL

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