Monday, March 26, 2012: José González - Stay In The Shade

Usually, Monday songs are loud, brash & bold - wake up, smell the coffee and get out there to attack the week types of songs.

But, it's always good to hold back, meditate and stay in the shade for a bit.

And there are very few people I would love to share some shade with more than a Swedish-Argentine indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Sweden.

What a mix.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010: The Knife/José González - Heartbeats

It's a TWOfer Tuesday here on CSOTD!

I knew early on in the planning stages for CSOTD I wanted to use Heartbeats by José González (see below). So, I began doing research on the song, because I'm working hard towards this becoming a proper blog. And, well, because I don't want to sound like a total idiot. Which I would have, if I had said that Heartbeats is by José González. Because it's not.

Turns out Heartbeats was originally written by a Swedish duo called The Knife. Never heard of them before. If you want to do your own research;

Here is their website: The Knife

Here is the Wikipdeia page about them: The Knife

After being dropped this bombshell, I decided would I give their song a perfunctory listen, then move on to writing about the José González version I had planned to use in the first place.

Turns out The Knife's original version is pretty amazing. Really, really amazing, actually.

After listening to it about a dozen times straight, it was obvious to me that I couldn't just blog the cover version only without including the original as well.

Enjoy.




Which brings us to the cover by José González. This song became popular when Sony used it in an advert for their Bravia line of televisions.  That is the video I've uploaded with the song.  Yes, it's a huge buzz kill when that slogan and advertisement intrude onto the last 5 seconds, but those proceeding 2:25 seconds are pure magic.

250,000 colourful bouncy balls are let loose to billow and rollick down a steep San Francisco street.  Captured in glorious slow motion, director Nicolai Fuglsig captures all the subtle, colourful action in perfect detail; I especially like the frog jumping out the drainage pipe.  It is truly a perfect marriage of image and musical tone.  Do yourself a favour, put it on the 1080p high def setting, go to full screen and be prepared to grin like a 6 year old kid who's gets a chance to see his imagination come to life.

Who knew advertising could be so cool?