After the surprisingly groove-heavy diversions of 2021’s Local Valley, José González’s first album in five years finds the oft-monastic Swedish singer-songwriter paring his sound back to the bare essentials: his feather-light voice, a guitar, and a few overdubs here and there to add some color to the mix. The result is González’s most naked record since his 2007 breakthrough, In Our Nature. The tranquility of Against the Dying of the Light complements the record’s weightier themes; listen closely and you’ll hear González rhapsodizing against technological obliteration over the desert-rock pulse of “A Perfect Storm” and the perils of nostalgia in the face of an uncertain future on the twilit, Paul Simon-esque glow of “Joy (Can’t Help But Sing).”