Leaving Emma’s all over the world swooning, Bon Iver’s debut album was a masterfully sombre triumph. Recorded in almost solitary confinement in the woods in Wisconsin, ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ was the document of a bearded soul lost and lonely with just his guitar for company. However, Justin Vernon is not alone this time. Bon Iver’s eponymous second album sees him joined by a whole host of musicians for a different landscape all together.
Whereas the debut’s brilliance was found in its unrefined touching emotion, ‘Bon Iver’ finds a new bolder direction with the same veins of indie folk running underneath thick layers of musical accompaniment. It’s not so much the lone man and his guitar in a miserable winter, but a slowly warming summer morning heralded by lavish percussion and a well-polished atmosphere. But it loses little of the beauty of the first effort, and Vernon is in distinctively exceptional falsetto form.
‘Wash’ is probably the rawest track on the record; slow pianos and simple lyrics make for a exquisite track, backed only by strings and swoons and proclaiming ‘Home, we’re savage high/Come, we finally cry’, but ‘Bon Iver’ as a whole paints a different picture. First track ‘Perth’ is a fine example of the album’s feel; marching drums, floating backing synths and a dreamy atmosphere that encompasses everything.
This is used to both good and bad effect. For the good, you need only look at the meandering yet touching ‘Michicant’, classic Iver with the telling line ‘searching for an inner clout/May not take another bout’. For the bad, note the pleasantly bright but instantly forgettable ‘Towers’, and the unremarkable ambience of instrumental track ‘Lisbon, OH’, but all together it makes for a rich and lavish effort that still tells us of Vernon’s brand of hopeful gloom.
Add in the almost bouncing ‘Minnesota, WI’ and the arching ‘Hinnom, TX’; complete with a joint baritone lead vocal; and it adds up to an elegantly lavish set of songs. The names compliment the feel of the record aswell; from warm Perth, Australia, to cold Calgary, Canada, the track listing reads like a journey and that’s what ‘Bon Iver’ feels like. Ever-changing and inventive, it’s a dreamlike trip with Vernon through his personal melancholy to something a little brighter.
The best example is album highlight ‘Holocene’; Vernon shows he is still the master of melancholy, a soft and poignant delivery, a slow guitar crescendo and the release of ‘And at once I knew I was not magnificent/Strayed above the highway aisle/Jagged vacance, thick with ice/I could see for miles, miles, miles’. Full of emotion and epic in its way, and coupled with the synth-fuelled ballad ‘Calgary’, stands as some of Vernon’s best work. Even the odd 80’s-influenced closer ‘Beth/Rest’, either a charming Phil Collins-esque number or a cheesy sitcom theme tune depending on your taste, fits in with the feel.
‘Bon Iver’ is a musical departure from the debut effort, but is still packs that sombre punch that ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ triumphed with - as long as you search for it amongst all those sounds. An endless ensemble of weird and wonderful instruments propels the album into new realms, while Vernon’s exemplary and distinguishing voice pierces through the sound to really connect. It may not have the simplistic and raw beauty of the first album, but ‘Bon Iver’ is a first-rate effort.
NWR
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