Nite Jewel – “Before I Go”Nite Jewel – “Before I Go”

Next month, Ramona Gonzalez will return with No Sun, her first Nite Jewel album in four years. Gonzalez recorded the LP after the end of her marriage and after she started studying to earn her PhD in musicology. We’ve already posted first single “This Time,” and now Gonzalez has also shared another song called “Before I Go.”

Gonzalez says that she wrote “Before I Go” immediately after her husband left her: “I really did mean before I go …forever, that I would die. It was this feeling that tumbled into the container of song. The harmony and the melody became the safety net for the emotions that might kill me.” But even though “Before I Go” came out of roiling emotions, that’s not how it sounds. Instead, it’s a sparse and chilly piece of music.

Gonzalez has always stripped pop music back to its barest, most evocative essentials, and that’s how “Before I Go” works. On the song, Gonzalez sings softly over a quiet pulse and some contemplative jazz chords. It’s a meditative, slightly jazz-informed piece of mood music, and you can hear it below.

No Sun is out 8/27 on Gloriette Records.