Swede dreams are made of this!
Swedish singer-songwriter Jose Gonzalez's acoustic re-working of electro-poppers The Knife's "Heartbeats" stakes out a very early claim for single of the year. A record of ethereal beauty built around a hypnotic hand picked guitar motif that recalls both Nick Drake and John Martyn - this is the kind of achingly sincere love-song James Blunt wishes he could write in his wildest dreams. Gonzalez's deep, yearning vocals add a real soulful quality to proceedings and mark him out as a singer of genuine promise. B-side "Suggestions" is a rather inconsequential instrumental by contrast and one for collectors only, but when the main course is so sumptuous who needs dessert? The good news is that Jose has several more beguiling numbers up his sleeve (on debut album Veneer) that are on a par if not better than this one. Whether he'll be hindered like others before him by scoring a hit on the back of an advert (in this case for the Sony Bravia LCD television) remains to be seen. However there can be no doubting the emotional pull of this quite stunning record.