Jose Gonzalez - Local Valley (LP) - Green Translucent Vinyl

Local Valley arrived on September 17, 2021, a patient and quietly dazzling return from José González after six years away since Vestiges & Claws. Issued by City Slang and Imperial Recordings, it reads like a curated notebook of ideas he has been refining for years, then whittled down to something lean and deeply playable. It is still the José most people fell for on Veneer, the nylon‑string patterns and soft, close‑mic’d voice, but the palette is wider and more open to the world.

One of the first signposts was El Invento, shared months ahead of the album and notable as his first song written in Spanish. He has talked about his daughter nudging that lyric along, and you can hear the tenderness in the way the melody traces the shape of a lullaby. The record folds English, Spanish, and Swedish into a single conversation, and that choice matters here. These songs lean into humanist questions, small moral puzzles, and ecological awareness, not as lectures but as gently offered prompts. Visions is the clearest statement, a meditation on our place on the planet that still feels light on its feet.

The playing is precise but never fussy. González favors bright, chiming figures and clipped bass thumps that keep everything moving, then adds tiny rhythmic details that bloom on repeat listens. Swing lives up to its title, a flicker of syncopation that feels like a late afternoon walk. Head On tightens the screws with a muscular, percussive groove, the guitar almost drumming while he threads a melody through the gaps. Even when he nudges toward a more propulsive feel, he keeps the mix airy so the songs breathe.

Local Valley is largely a one‑man operation, recorded at his own Studio Koltrast in Sweden. You can hear the room, and that is part of the pleasure. The production is focused on clarity, each part given a precise place. When subtle handclaps or a soft pulse drop in, they do not crowd the guitar, they just tilt the center of gravity. The sequencing helps too. Bright, inviting tunes sit next to quieter pieces that feel like sketches preserved because the mood was right. It never drags, and it never breaks the spell.

If you have followed González through Junip and his solo work, the lyrical lens here will feel familiar, but the multilingual turn sharpens it. A Swedish track arrives with conversational bite, a Spanish lyric slips into a more intimate register, and English ties it together. That switch keeps the album from settling into a single color. It also rewards close listening even if you do not speak all three languages, since the phrasing and rhythmic choices shift with each tongue.

Critical reception landed on the warm side of the dial, with generally favorable notices and a lot of attention to the expanded scope. What sticks, though, is how quietly confident the record is. No big gestures, no forced reinventions. Just songs that are built to last and produced with the kind of care that makes them feel lived in. It is the sort of album that grows with you, the details coalescing after the third or fourth time you let Side A roll without interruption.

For vinyl heads, Local Valley is an easy recommendation. If you collect José González vinyl, this sits beautifully next to Veneer and In Our Nature, and it makes a strong case that his late‑period work is every bit as essential. Searching for Local Valley vinyl is also a practical move if you want these songs to stretch out and fill a room, since the arrangements thrive on space and quiet. Whether you tend to buy José González records online or like to browse José González albums on vinyl in person, it belongs on a short list of modern singer‑songwriter records that reward a front‑to‑back spin. Even if you are digging through bins in a Melbourne record store or comparing listings for vinyl records Australia, this is the kind of title you pull out, take home, and play from start to finish, then do it again the next morning.