Bon Iver - Bon Iver

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Clinton on Fri 17 Jun, 2011.

Had the marketing team not gone with the whole 'recorded in an isolated cabin' schtick I wonder if 'For Emma, Forever Ago' would have quite had the same impact? That record's quiet desolation seemed to strike a chord with folks everywhere, even with the Tesco brigade (sole UK distributor of the new Status Quo album by the way). So where now for the man with the squeaky voice? Having chosen to self-title the record (usually done on a bands fourth album when they want to get 'back to basics') and featuring a painting of a remote cabin on the sleeve - possibly driving the point home a little too hard - this is a much more realised album with full band in tow. Today's Independent newspaper states rather boldly that Justin Vernon is perhaps the most important figure in popular music, it's good to see the press not given over to hyperbole too much. It's clear that Vernon is a man with talents at his disposal. He's at his best on songs such as the drifting 'Holoscene' where he lets the music breathe, interspersing carefully layered vocals at intervals over picked guitar. This record has none of its predecessor's desolation, it's full, warm and nicely tuneful. I'm reminded quite a bit of Peter Gabriel (and so by osmosis TV on the Radio) and of Beirut in the horns that pick their way across the disc. What is lacking until a few songs in is a sense of yearning and melancholy which returns eagerly once the additional instrumentation is dropped and what is impressive is that Vernon has squeezed up the happiness while not entirely isolating the listeners turned on by the earlier misery. His voice will be an acquired taste, being somewhere between Tunde Adebimpe, Adam 'Dose One' Drucker and a church mouse but he does seek to find other ways of vocalising, one frustrating thing is that the lyrics are impenetrable due to the falsetto delivery which means you can never really hook yourself into the songs. Warm '80s synths are used and occasionally we are way into 'Streets of Philadelphia' territory, one song sounds exactly like Peter Cetera. Overall, its pretty much what the marketing man ordered, a varied, sonically warmed, happier Bon Iver with scrubbed production values and a handful of decent tunes, whether the yacht rock tendencies push it a little too far into 1984's mainstream remain to be seen.

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When Justin Vernon emerged from the wilds of Wisconsin in 2008 with his Bon Iver project,
and the startling debut album ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’, perhaps none of us quite realised the
magnitude of this unique talent.
· Not only did he capture hearts across the globe, but ‘For Emma’ also attained beyond gold sales
in the UK, and the follow up EP ‘Blood Bank’ debuted at #14 on the Billboard Top 200 and the
Top 40 UK in 2009.
· In the intervening months and years, Vernon has collaborated non-stop on entirely new projects
in varying genres with Gayngs’ sassy innovation on the ‘Relayted’ album, and Volcano Choir, a
freeform adventure with fellow Wisconsin musicians Collections of Colonies of Bees on the
album ‘Unmap’. He also duetted with St Vincent, appearing on the ‘Twilight: New Moon’
soundtrack, while Peter Gabriel recorded a cover of Bon Iver’s ‘Flume’ and Bon Iver
reciprocated with ‘Come Talk To Me’.
· And then there was the time when Kanye West called up and invited Vernon to pop down to his
studio in Hawaii to collaborate on the hip hop auteur’s astoundingly bold opus, ‘My Beautiful
Dark Twisted Fantasy’. West sampled ‘Woods’ (taken from ‘Blood Bank’) on the track ‘Lost in
the World’.
· When it came to recording the follow up to For Emma, Justin Vernon headed to his hometown
of Eau Claire. Bon Iver was recorded and mixed at April Base Studios, a remodeled
veterinarian’s clinic located in rural Fall Creek, Wisconsin. The main recording space is
constructed over a defunct indoor pool attached to the clinic.
· The creation of ‘Bon Iver’ was not solely down to Vernon. On the track ‘Beth/Rest’ and
throughout the album, we hear the pedal steel of Greg Leisz (Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell), the
uniquely layered low end of Colin Stetson's (Tom Waits, Arcade Fire) saxophones, the riffing of
Mike Lewis' (Happy Apple, Andrew Bird) altos and tenors, and the lush horns of C.J. Camerieri
(Rufus Wainwright, Sufjan Stevens). Bon Iver regulars Sean Carey, Mike Noyce and Matt
McCaughan contributed vocals, drums and production, Rob Moose (Antony and the Johnsons,
The National) helped with arranging and added strings, and fellow members of Volcano Choir,
Jim Schoenecker and Tom Wincek provided processing.
· It’s all there right away, in the thicker-stringed guitar and military snare of ‘Perth’, and
‘Minnesota, WI.’ Anyone who had a single listen to ‘For Emma’ will peg Justin Vernon’s vocals
immediately, but there is a sturdiness – an insistence – to ‘Bon Iver’ that allows him to escape
the cabin in the woods without burning it to the ground.
· ‘Holocene’ opens with simple finger-picking. The vocal is regret spun hollow and strung on a
wire. Then the snare-beat breaks and drives us forward and up and up….The magical poise and
restraint of ‘Michicant’. The vocals in ‘Hinnom, TX’ ease to the muffled depths, while the
instrumentation remains sparse and cosmic.
· From the tenderised piano and sprouting strings of arguable album highlight ‘Wash’, we arrive
at future single ‘Calgary’ – a worship song to everything ‘For Emma’ mourned.
· At the point in the final track ‘Beth/Rest’ when Vernon sings, “I ain’t livin’ in the dark no more”
it is clear he isn’t dancing in the sunshine, but rather shading toward a new light. It also
provides the most ‘Woods’-like moment on the album in terms of singular voice and production.
· Bon Iver is Justin Vernon returning to former haunts with a new spirit. The reprises are there –
solitude, quietude and hope – but always a rhythm arises, a pulse vivified by gratitude and
grace notes, some as bright as a bicycle bell. The winter, the myth, has faded to just that, and
this is the new momentary present.
· From ‘Perth’ to ‘Beth’ we go full circle and reach the summation to a remarkable second album.