Bon Iver [Album Details]

Bon Iver
Allmusic Biography : Defined by the pure vocals and confessional lyrics of singer/songwriter Justin Vernon, Bon Iver embodied the sound of late-2000s indie folk with their debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, while later albums incorporated electronic and R&B; elements that widened their fan base, which included collaborator Kanye West. Justin Vernon began recording under the nom de band Bon Iver following the breakup of DeYarmond Edison, an indie folk group similar in tone and manner to Iron & Wine, Little Wings, and -- to a certain extent -- Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Vernons solo project took DeYarmond Edisons introspective, folky sound and embellished it with quirky orchestral touches that nodded to Sparklehorse and the drifty optimism of the Flaming Lips. Vernon moved back to Wisconsin the winter following DeYarmonds demise, setting up camp in a remote cabin in the north woods for three months. It was a hugely generative period for Vernon; writing and recording songs in 12-hour bursts, he found himself with a nine-song debut album by spring. He dubbed the project Bon Iver (an intentional misspelling of the French for "good winter"), and the disc, For Emma, Forever Ago, was released on Jagjaguwar in early 2008. Joined in his live shows by Sean Carey, Vernon toured throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada throughout the remainder of the year, sharing the stage with like-minded singer/songwriter Elvis Perkins. As the year progressed, the album became quite popular with both the buying public and critics, eventually landing on a number of "best of 2008" year-end lists. In January 2009, Bon Iver returned with an EP of old and new songs titled Blood Bank. One of Vernons fans turned out to be Kanye West, who brought him to Hawaii later that year to add vocals to a couple tracks on Wests 2010 album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. When it came time to return to Vernons own music, he continued stretching his legs by composing orchestral, lushly arranged folk songs that turned their back on For Emmas intimate sound. The new tunes were released during the following summer as Bon Iver. It received generally positive reviews, topped the charts in several countries, and hit number two in America. In February 2012, Bon Iver won two Grammy Awards: Best Alternative Album and Best New Artist. After a year of touring, Vernon dropped a bombshell, stating in an interview that Bon Iver was "winding down" and hed be working on other projects instead. The first of these was his blues-based group, the Shouting Matches, who played a set at 2013s Coachella festival. Later that year another of his bands, Volcano Choir, released their second album, Repave, and Vernon appeared on Kanye Wests Yeezus. It turned out that Bon Iver wasnt as wound down as it seemed and sporadically surfaced over the next couple years, with the band providing a cover of Peter Gabriels "Come Talk to Me" on the singers 2013 album, And Ill Scratch Yours, and landing the new song "Heavenly Father" on the soundtrack to the 2014 film Wish I Was Here. After yet another statement saying that Bon Iver wasnt working on anything new, the band appeared at the festival Vernon co-curated with the Nationals Aaron Dessner, Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival, and performed two new songs. Finally, in early 2016, Vernon went on record saying Bon Iver was actually still happening and a new album was in the works. Before that could happen, Vernon showed up on James Blakes March album, The Colour in Anything, co-writing a song. At the 2016 Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival held in August, Bon Iver played a set made up of all new songs and the next day announced a new album, 22, A Million. It was released on Jagjaguwar in September of 2016 and mostly eschewed Vernons beginnings in favor of a chopped-up, dramatic indie folktronica sound. 22, A Million was nominated for a 2017 Best Alternative Music Album Grammy Award.
	Album: 1 of 5 Title: For Emma, Forever Ago Released: 2007-07-08 Tracks: 9 Duration: 37:15 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover	1 Flume (03:39) 2 Lump Sum (03:21) 3 Skinny Love (03:58) 4 The Wolves (Act I and II) (05:22) 5 Blindsided (05:29) 6 Creature Fear (03:06) 7 Team (01:56) 8 For Emma (03:40) 9 re: stacks (06:41)
For Emma, Forever Ago : Allmusic album Review : Bon Iver is the work of Justin Vernon. He isolated himself in a remote cabin in Wisconsin for almost four months, writing, and recording the songs on For Emma, Forever Ago, his haunting debut album. A few parts (horns, drums, and backing vocals) were added in a North Carolina studio, but for the majority of the time its just Vernon, his utterly disarming voice, and his enchanting songs. The voice is the first thing you notice. Vernons falsetto soars like a hawk and when he adds harmonies and massed backing vocals, it can truly be breathtaking. "The Wolves (Acts I & II)" truly shows what Vernon can do as he croons, swoops, and cajoles his way through an erratic and enchanting melody like Marvin Gaye after a couple trips to the backyard still. "Skinny Love" shows more of his range as he climbs down from the heights of falsetto and shouts out the angry and heartachey words quite convincingly. Framing his voice are suitably subdued arrangements built around acoustic guitars and filled out with subtle electric guitars, the occasional light drums, and slide guitar. Vernon has a steady grasp of dynamics too; the ebb and flow of "Creature Fear" is powerfully dramatic and when the chorus hits its hard not to be swept away by the flood of tattered emotion. Almost every song has a moment where the emotion peaks and hearts begin to weaken and bend: the beauty of that voice is what pulls you through every time. For Emma captures the sound of broken and quiet isolation, wraps it in a beautiful package, and delivers it to your door with a beating, bruised heart. Its quite an achievement for a debut and the promise of greatness in the future is high. Oh, and because you have to mention it, Iron & Wine. Also, Little Wings. Most of all, though, Bon Iver.
	Album: 2 of 5 Title: Blood Bank Released: 2009-01-20 Tracks: 4 Duration: 16:54 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover	1 Blood Bank (04:45) 2 Beach Baby (02:40) 3 Babys (04:43) 4 Woods (04:45)
	Album: 3 of 5 Title: Bon Iver, Bon Iver Released: 2011-06-20 Tracks: 10 Duration: 39:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover	1 Perth (04:22) 2 Minnesota, WI (03:52) 3 Holocene (05:37) 4 Towers (03:08) 5 Michicant (03:42) 6 Hinnom, TX (02:45) 7 Wash. (04:59) 8 Calgary (04:10) 9 Lisbon, OH (01:33) 10 Beth/Rest (05:17)
Bon Iver, Bon Iver : Allmusic album Review : Part of the beauty of Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, was the intimate, backwoods feel of the recording and the simplicity of Justin Vernon’s soaring, open wound of a voice with only minimal musical backing to distract from its impact. Even though Vernon had a few other people playing on the album, it was easy to imagine a solitary broken soul spilling his guts onto tape for hours at a time while the world went on without him. It was a truly aching, somewhat claustrophobic sound that was beautiful and unique. After a couple years in which his life was basically turned upside down thanks to the success of For Emma, Vernon’s second album is quite different. Where For Emma was stripped down and intimate, Bon Iver is packed with guest musicians, horn sections, strings, and extra vocalists. Every inch of sonic space is filled with sound, each one fighting for space and distracting from Bon Iver’s strength, namely Vernon’s vocals. It’s probably unfair to expect Vernon to replicate the sound of For Emma, but he could have found a middle ground between tender restraint and totally overdoing it. Instead, he’s working like mad to distance himself from the sound he established so well in a desperate attempt to make a “masterpiece” instead of For Emma, Pt. 2. Perhaps if he were a more skilled producer and arranger, things would have been better. Unfortunately, his style comes off more like sub-Enya with a beard than a true studio wizard. The muted, over-washed sound of the record is murky when it should be mysterious, flat when it should be 3-D, and his reliance on clichéd synth sounds is somewhat perplexing. While most of the record is underwhelming sonically, the last track, "Beth/Rest," is laughable. Sounding like it was recorded using a five-dollar Casio and featuring some of the worst dueling sax/guitar solos you’d ever imagine, it shoots for a majestic, album-ending feel but instead sounds like the theme song to a horrible 80s movie about unicorns (only not that good). Despite disasters like that, there are still enough moments of tender beauty and restraint to remind you why Bon Iver is worth caring about. The relatively restrained "Wash," which pits Vernon’s aching vocal orchestra against a jagged, repeating piano line (and only minimal strings and pedal steel), the first two-thirds of "Holocene" (before the mix bursts with saxes and unnecessary effects), the simple and affecting "Michicant" (if you can ignore the distractions) -- these have hints of the grace and understated emotion that made For Emma what it was. Hints aren’t enough to make the record a success, though, and by reaching too far, Vernon and Bon Iver fall flat with a huge thud. It’s a shame Vernon felt he had to take Bon Iver outside the cabin and into the world. He was doing just fine on his own and didn’t need all those people and instruments cluttering up the air. “Woods” proved that all Vernon needed to break a heart was his voice and some Auto-Tune. Though he can be praised for not just copying himself and trying to progress, to be honest, For Emma, Pt. 2 would have been far more satisfying than this overblown debacle.
	Album: 4 of 5 Title: iTunes Session Released: 2012-06-19 Tracks: 7 Duration: 34:26 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover	1 Beth/Rest (06:26) 2 Michicant (05:43) 3 Holocene (05:36) 4 Minnesota, WI (03:31) 5 Hinnom, TX (03:48) 6 Wash. (04:39) 7 Who Is It? (04:43)
$Allmusic album Review : After a few years spent working on things other than Bon Iver, time spent sorting out heavy personal issues, and a radical rethink of the style that launched Justin Vernons project to the upper reaches of indie folk popularity, the always searching musician returned in 2016 with an album that redefined Bon Iver in dramatic fashion. 22, A Million is a complicated and intricate record that features chopped-up lyrics, altered vocals, sped-up samples, alternately shimmering and clipped keyboards, treated saxophones, and the occasional gently strummed guitar. Through most of the challenging album, Vernon and his collaborators create miniature structures of sound and space, letting his vocals drift and cascade through sparse and fractured constructs like a lost soul wandering through empty futuristic streets. Its a long way from intimate folk songs recorded in a remote Wisconsin cabin. In the music, one can hear the influence of Vernons occasional collaborator Kanye West, especially on the mutated R&B tracks like "10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄" and "33 God," where his vocals take on a rap-like cadence, but also in the sense of grandeur and bombast intermittently found there and elsewhere. In direct contrast are the songs that sound very inward and emotionally bleak and twisted, possibly reflecting some of Vernons struggles along the way. The desperate "715 - CR∑∑KS," which features nothing but a choir of Auto-Tuned Vernons singing aching lyrics that sound like theyre being ripped from the deepest, darkest corner of his tortured soul, is maybe the darkest track. In yet more contrast, a few songs on the album retain much of the hushed acoustic feel of his earlier albums, but with weird electronics and tricks around the edges. The beautiful "29 #Strafford APTS" is a folk song at its core, but he adds altered vocals, queasily pitched saxophones, and distorted electronic tones to provide some drama to the song. He does similar things to the album-ending piano ballad "00000 Million" and the tense, almost ambient "21 M◊◊N WATER," turning them from typically sad Bon Iver songs into something weird and oddly more affecting. The only track on the album that falls short of the standard set elsewhere is "8 (circle)," which makes the mistake of being a little too earnestly straightforward and too much like a Bruce Hornsby song. This was probably the one that needed the most manipulation, and its the one that gets the least. One little misstep cant keep 22, A Million from being a return to form, even as it turns the established form on its head and gives it a spin. Its clear that the upheavals in Vernons life and music are a matched set; he turns his pain into art as he does a deep dive into exploration of technique and sound. Its an impressive feat of reinvention that manages to keep Vernons emotional core fully intact no matter how far the music strays from established Bon Iver territory.$	Album: 5 of 5 Title: 22, a Million Released: 2016-09-30 Tracks: 10 Duration: 34:11 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover	1 22 (OVER S∞∞N) (02:48) 2 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄ (02:24) 3 715 - CR∑∑KS (02:12) 4 33 “GOD” (03:33) 5 29 #Strafford APTS (04:05) 6 666 ʇ (04:12) 7 21 M◊◊N WATER (03:08) 8 8 (circle) (05:09) 9 ____45_____ (02:46) 10 00000 Million (03:53)
22, a Million : Allmusic album Review : After a few years spent working on things other than Bon Iver, time spent sorting out heavy personal issues, and a radical rethink of the style that launched Justin Vernons project to the upper reaches of indie folk popularity, the always searching musician returned in 2016 with an album that redefined Bon Iver in dramatic fashion. 22, A Million is a complicated and intricate record that features chopped-up lyrics, altered vocals, sped-up samples, alternately shimmering and clipped keyboards, treated saxophones, and the occasional gently strummed guitar. Through most of the challenging album, Vernon and his collaborators create miniature structures of sound and space, letting his vocals drift and cascade through sparse and fractured constructs like a lost soul wandering through empty futuristic streets. Its a long way from intimate folk songs recorded in a remote Wisconsin cabin. In the music, one can hear the influence of Vernons occasional collaborator Kanye West, especially on the mutated R&B tracks like "10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄" and "33 God," where his vocals take on a rap-like cadence, but also in the sense of grandeur and bombast intermittently found there and elsewhere. In direct contrast are the songs that sound very inward and emotionally bleak and twisted, possibly reflecting some of Vernons struggles along the way. The desperate "715 - CR∑∑KS," which features nothing but a choir of Auto-Tuned Vernons singing aching lyrics that sound like theyre being ripped from the deepest, darkest corner of his tortured soul, is maybe the darkest track. In yet more contrast, a few songs on the album retain much of the hushed acoustic feel of his earlier albums, but with weird electronics and tricks around the edges. The beautiful "29 #Strafford APTS" is a folk song at its core, but he adds altered vocals, queasily pitched saxophones, and distorted electronic tones to provide some drama to the song. He does similar things to the album-ending piano ballad "00000 Million" and the tense, almost ambient "21 M◊◊N WATER," turning them from typically sad Bon Iver songs into something weird and oddly more affecting. The only track on the album that falls short of the standard set elsewhere is "8 (circle)," which makes the mistake of being a little too earnestly straightforward and too much like a Bruce Hornsby song. This was probably the one that needed the most manipulation, and its the one that gets the least. One little misstep cant keep 22, A Million from being a return to form, even as it turns the established form on its head and gives it a spin. Its clear that the upheavals in Vernons life and music are a matched set; he turns his pain into art as he does a deep dive into exploration of technique and sound. Its an impressive feat of reinvention that manages to keep Vernons emotional core fully intact no matter how far the music strays from established Bon Iver territory.