Here are a few tips for reviewing a CD. First after receiving the CD make sure that the PR or record label person who sent it to you knows that you have received it. Second (for those of you who, like me, rip everything to listen to it with your iPod/MP3 player) rip, said CD. Third, listen to it. Fourth, listen to it again. Fifth, listen to it again. Sixth – so you know where I’m going with this right – listen to it again.
It’s very important that you listen to a CD at least four or five times before you write about it, you must know it, feel it and understand it – like that Bryan Adams song, “Have You Ever Really Loved A CD”. Lastly, write about it while listening to it.
Sometimes however you hear something that is so good, so powerful, so moving, you don’t need to listen to it more than once. You know it, feel it, and understand it instantly. José González's Veneer is just such an album - perfect, moving, picturesque, and achingly beautiful. I didn’t need a second listen. I haven’t stopped playing it since I got it yesterday and I doubt I will anytime soon.
Listening to Veneer is like dreaming with your ears. Acoustic guitar so softly played, so bare, everything else just seems like unnecessary clutter. Perfectly plucked Spanish guitar, haunting, exhaled vocals, and naked lyrics. What more do you need in a dream.
Veneer begins with “Slow Moves” an honest, defenceless track. The simple, palpable lyrics compliment the unvarnished guitar and González's pure, unadorned tenor is the ideal chaperon for his genere-less music.
“Lovestain” has a slightly more upbeat sound with rather joyous, almost evanescent hand clapping. These are in stark contrast to the barren, unconcealed, heart break conveyed in the lyrics of just three lines.
Article comments
1 - Scott Butki
Oooh so you broke the rules of reviewing? I'm telling!
Good review. I'd like to hear more so I may have
to check out that myspace site.