when i first heard jose gonzalez, i was ready to set him aside w/ devendra banhart et. al., whose appeal i'd have to attribute to the fact that he has a hell of a name--hereward thimbleby price, eat your heart out--and is neat-looking (one expects that picture to say, "touch my heart--w/ your foot.)
upon a listening of "latest" single (the album was originally released in 2003), "stay in the shade," i'm ready to alter that opinion and say that here is an honest-to-goodness nick drake man: it has the starkness and brevity of pink moon and the bongos of five leaves left. what gonzalez brings to it is the benefit of his experience; a swede of argentine descent, "stay in the shade" exhibits the tunefulness of his birth country and the guitar rhythms and chordings of his ancestral home.
all of this, plus he covers kylie's "hand on your heart," in earnest, on the b-side. (which, incidentally, i'd love to hear.)
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