José González Returns With New Album and Tour

José González is preparing his first album in four years. Against the Dying of the Light, the follow-up to Local Valley, is out March 27 via Mute. Below, watch Fredrik Egerstrand’s video for the title track and check out González’s tour dates behind the LP. The album tracklist, also below, includes the recent single “Pajarito.”

The Swedish singer-songwriter gives a typically big-picture assessment of the song in a press release:

“Against the Dying of the Light” is a song reflecting on humanity in 2025. It’s about accepting who we are and what led us here, since the past can’t be changed…. Even though natural selection led us here, we don’t have to do what is in the gene’s best interest. And even though cultural evolution led to our societies, we don’t have to keep all the narratives if they drag us down. And even though we have enormous opportunities with new technology that can eventually design and copy itself, we don’t have to build it right away if it has the potential to make us obsolete. We can rebel against these replicators, rebel against the dying of the light.

The album, he adds, concerns “who we are—tribes of sentient apes with stories that sometimes are incompatible with each other and tools that could eventually lead to dystopia or extinction.” He goes on to lament the scourge of dogmatic ideology, spouted by “dudes who pretend to know shit they don’t.” And while the record “can be listened to just for the sounds, harmonies, and rhythms,” the lyrics, he insists, are “meant to inspire people to engage and take action by collaborating to solve collective problems. For humanism and enlightenment values and against the dying of the light.”

José González:

04-21 Boston, MA – Royale
04-22 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
04-23 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
04-25 New York, NY – Brooklyn Steel
04-27 Chicago, IL – Vic Theatre
04-28 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
05-01 Seattle, WA – SODO
05-02 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
05-03 San Francisco, CA – Castro Theater
05-04 San Francisco, CA – Bimbos
05-05 Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether
05-08 Austin, TX – Mohawk Outside
05-09 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
05-11 Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom

Against the Dying of the Light:

01 A Perfect Storm
02 Etyd
03 Against the Dying of the Light
04 For Every Dusk
05 Sheet
06 Pajarito
07 Losing Game (Sick)
08 Ay Querida
09 Rawls Slöja
10 Gymnasten
11 Just a Rock
12 You & We
13 Joy (Can’t Help but Sing)

José Gonzalez: I Against the Dying Light

$39.99 at Rough Trade