JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ

Local Valley CITY SLANG

8/10

Former acoustic moper finds a joyful new purpose. By Sam Richards

FIFTEEN years on, José González is still primarily known, to the tune of 342 million Spotify plays, for his cover of “Heartbeats” by fellow Swedes The Knife. Much of its initial popularity was down to an appearance on Sony Bravia’s memorable ‘coloured balls’ TV ad – exactly the kind of ‘sync’ every emerging artist (and their publishing company) would killwent platinum, yet the introverted González was never really cut out for mainstream success.