The Best Thing I Heard this Week--Bon Iver

The best thing I heard this week was the new Bon Iver album. Bon Iver, or Justin Vernon, succeeds on his second, self-titled record, in a way that is both completely different than the first and exactly the same.

So what’s different? Bon Iver is a more oblique record than For Emma, Forever Ago. Instead of songs consisting only of Vernon’s voice and a guitar, the tracks have much more depth. Vernon obviously spent ages recording all of the vocal tracks that swirl in and out of his songs, not to mention the veritable choirs present in some tracks. The change is evident from the first song, “Perth,” with electric guitars replacing the acoustic ones, and using not just one but two drum tracks to provide percussion. While this could be sloppy, Vernon shows his talents a composer on this record, pulling together these sounds with aplomb.

The lyrical content follows a similar pattern. A few weeks before the record was released, Jagjaguwar gave fans the lyrics to the record, but I don’t think that will help them parse the content any better. As you can read here, many of the meanings will likely take time and Vernon’s own explanations to decode. This is in stark contrast to For Emma, Forever Ago, wherein Vernon wore his heart on his sleeve, his chest, and everywhere else it could possibly show.

Luckily for us, the best things about Bon Iver’s music are still present on the new record. Namely, the overwhelming rush of nostalgia that each song evinces from the listener. Every track feels like a deconstruction of the last ten years of my life. I spent this week listening to the record and thinking about moments of my life I never thought I would tread on again. Part of the nostalgia is driven by Vernon’s voice. For me, he is the pied piper of nostalgia, drawing us along with his voice as opposed to a flute.

Throughout the record (notably on “Michicant,” “Holocene,” and “Wash.”), Vernon creates impossibly delicate and intricate sounds, convincing you that everything is going to completely fall apart. Yet it never really does. The songs feel like looking back on how things almost fell apart years ago, how everything at the time was so desperate and perhaps hopeless. And, yet, here you are, able to sing about it later as if it was merely a trifle. “Towers” expresses this the best, with Vernon almost wailing listlessly, yet halfway through, the song picks up the pace and becomes happy. Well, almost.

I wrote about Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago here, forever ago.