But the imagery is there in each and every song. Some of these cities actually exist, some don’t. His songs create places in our heads, real, recalled, and imagined. Vernon’s primary talent lies in creating vivid imagery through his music. The harmonies and vocal layerings are as tight as can be, and even though we may have a hard time making out the lyrics here and there (just Google some and see how many diatribes you find in the comment sections), we don’t really care. New instrumentation aside, Vernon now seems to be even more aware that his unique voice is the primary instrument that makes Bon Iver something special. Enter album number two: The self-titled Bon Iver, making a mockery of the very idea of the “sophomore slump.”Īs mentioned before, the haunting atmosphere that made For Emma, Forever Ago such a gorgeous album is back in full force. You ditch much of the acoustic guitar for more piano and keyboard, some quirky synth, a banjo here and there, and…a saxophone? Yes. Then you start on your second full album expanding the sound, expanding the production, but keeping the same hauntingly beautiful atmosphere those winter months in the cabin inspired. Maybe throw down a little four song EP that every network television show in existence will utilize. Spend a little time on some side projects, like Gayngs. The first logical answer is to hang out with Kanye West and Peter Gabriel a little bit. So here you are, years later, riding the wave of unexpected success and universal acclaim of a deeply cathartic work, facing the question: What’s next? Furthermore, I doubt he anticipated just how explosive Bon Iver’s debut album For Emma, Forever Ago would be within the indie-folk scene. The solitude would harvest a creative product I doubt Vernon initially anticipated. Sometime before 2007, a sick and melancholic Vernon would retreat to a cabin in the northern Wisconsin woods to be alone with his thoughts for a full winter. Justin Vernon, the frontman behind the moniker, is an artist’s artist. Babys - AIR Studios - 4D/Jagjaguwar Sessionġ5.Wisconsin: A land of cheese, a land of ambition. I Can’t Make You Love Me - AIR Studios - 4D/Jagjaguwar Sessionġ4. Hinnom, TX - AIR Studios - 4D/Jagjaguwar Sessionġ2. def crying i'm excited to have this & the record in my hands soon /YWInfn4ZbXīon Iver, Bon Iver (10th Anniversary Edition) Artwork:īon Iver, Bon Iver (10th Anniversary Edition) Tracklist:ġ1. Phoebe's essay for the 10th anniversary of bon iver bon iver. Get tickets to Bon Iver here and to Bridgers here. will kick things off March 30th in Mesa, Arizona while the Punisher singer will launch the latest iteration of her “Reunion Tour” April 13th in Phoenix. Read Bridgers’ essay in full and stream Bon Iver (10th Anniversary Edition) below. Meanwhile, both Bon Iver and Bridgers are set to begin tours in the coming days. But here, now - the landscape slipping past your windows, the lyrics folding into the music, you seeing yourself singing, and singing loud - you are happy, you are weeping, you are moving fast.” When you were seventeen, it was heartbreak, horniness, fear, an avalanche of yearning. In the delicate balance of contentment and nostalgia and depleted serotonin, you remember all the reasons you love this album the way it amplifies whatever feelings are already there. “But it is one of your favorite albums in the way you can only have favorite albums when you are a teenager so, ten years after hearing these songs for the first time, two days after taking MDMA, going eighty on the highway next to someone you love who loves you back, you put it on.”īridgers concludes: “Three songs in, it is hard to focus on the road because you are crying. “Records can take you to where you were - who you were-when you first listened to them you’re scared to go back,” she continues. “When you are asked to write about Bon Iver, Bon Iver you haven’t listened to it all the way through since you were a teenager,” Bridgers admits. It didn’t matter.”Ĭiting “Towers” as her “first favorite song,” the “Kyoto” singer then goes on to revisit the album a decade on. You could count the times you’d left California on your thumbs. You starfished on your rocket sheets with your headphones turned all the way up… You read about the album’s lyrical themes, cities like Perth and Portland, and how the significance we put on place is really just about people and the passage of time. “It was massive, sprawling, unbelievably complex - The Beach Boys on opiates. It did not sound the way you expected,” she writes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |