Released: December 2002

It’s one of life’s great injustices that probably more people know José González’s cover version than the glorious original from The Knife’s ‘Deep Cuts’. Ironically, it was just such an emphasis on acoustic or traditional instrumentation as more real or emotional that the Swedish brother and sister duo set out to debunk, by refusing to use any organic sounds and declaring “we want to react against the organic, improvised expression”. The songs on ‘Deep Cuts’ are some of the most beautiful of the entire decade, and no more than this perfectly aching tale of the glory and pain of a fleeting affair. Take your stupid acoustic guitar and shove it, González.