Jose Gonzalez - Vestiges & Claws (2015) FLAC Beolab1700

Jose Gonzalez - Vestiges & Claws (2015) FLAC Beolab1700



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José González - Vestiges & Claws
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Artist...............: José González
Album................: Vestiges & Claws
Genre................: Indie
Source...............: CD
Year.................: 2015
Ripper...............: EAC (Secure mode) / LAME 3.92 & Asus CD-S520
Codec................: Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)
Version..............: reference libFLAC 1.3.1 20141125
Quality..............: Lossless, (avg. compression: 49 %)
Channels.............: Stereo / 44100 HZ / 16 Bit
Tags.................: VorbisComment
Information..........:

Posted by............: Beolab1700 on 10/02/2015

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Tracklisting
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1. José González - Stories We Build, Stories We Tell [03:25]
2. José González - What Will [06:27]
3. José González - Leaf Off / The Cave [04:53]
4. José González - Vissel [03:44]
5. José González - Afterglow [03:42]
6. José González - Open Book [02:40]
7. José González - With the Ink of a Ghost [05:18]
8. José González - Every Age [03:10]
9. José González - The Forest [03:20]
10. José González - Let It Carry You [05:34]

Playing Time.........: 42:18
Total Size...........: 181.65 MB

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Earth is a speck in the universe. This is a common idea expressed by everyone from astronomer Carl Sagan to forwarded email threads from distant relatives with subject lines like “Feeling Small Yet?”. In Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, he laments the injustices and grievances humankind hold against one another on this “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” It’s a beautiful and humbling thought. Whereas Sagan celebrated life by looking outward at the vastness of the cosmos, Swedish singer-songwriter José González looks closer to home to examine our logic-defying existence on his third solo album, Vestiges & Claws.
González is far from the first artist to tackle this concept. Björk’s Biophilia and The Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” both took on this grand idea with massive musical arrangements and, in Björk’s case, created entire multimedia experiences to try to grasp the idea. González’s universe feels much more self-contained in comparison. He draws instead from the life all around him, whether that be nature or basic human interaction. He’s not trying to make sense out of stars; he’s more interested in these tangible things. This isn’t exactly new territory for González. On his last solo album, 2007’s In Our Nature, he explored evolution and naturalism. Back then, he centered himself on progress; this time he’s more or less admiring the view.

The nature imagery begins on the opener “With the Ink of a Ghost”, in which González relates walking through trails in the mist over peaceful yet haunting guitar tones. On “The Forest”, he dotingly describes the rain and mountain landscapes. He’s so caught up in the beauty of everything that he neglects the bad things, like a forest fire or cracks in a bridge. A flute wavers around his cooing vocals.

Despite taking a smaller look at the universe, this is actually his densest solo work yet. Having been focused on his band Junip, it sounds like he’s become more comfortable with fuller instrumentation on his own. Alongside his trademark whispery voice and fingerpicked acoustic guitar, he employs guitar overdubs and more percussive elements. One of the highlights of coming to a new González record is marveling at his guitar virtuosity. That’s all here again, but these slight new additions to his sound rival his dexterity. Having self-produced the record, he was able to maintain a certain level of rawness with these recordings. Strings buzz and ring throughout every track. When the drums come in, they feel large and demanding. His voice is hazy, almost like a speck in his own musical universe.

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