Jose Gonzalez - In Your Nature Album Review

Jose Gonzalez
In Your Nature
Album Review

In your Nature is Jose Gonzalez's first LP since 2003's Veneer, which only achieved mainstream popularity in 2005, thanks to Mr Gonzalez taking the high road and shilling for Sony. Luckily, the record itself wasn't half bad, but can his latest effort live up to its predecessor?

Well, in a sense the answer is yes, because it gives fans exactly what they were expecting; wistful folk and delicate acoustic guitars. What it doesn't do, is offer anything particularly spectacular, and is as such something of a rehash.
That's not to say it's an inherently bad record; 'How Low' bubbles with the kind of vitriol that's largely absent from his other work, and his cover of 'Teardrop' is way better than that bloke with ginger dreads' attempt. The crux of the problem is that most of the record drifts by inoffensively, and does very little to capture the imagination.

Of course, none of us were expecting a new thrash metal direction; but some progression or augmentation of Veneer's pared back style would have made things at least a bit more interesting. If Jose Gonzalez doesn't start to stray off the beaten path soon, his next album will be another example of diminishing returns, a la Coldplay, and nobody would want that, would they?

Ben Davis

3/5