I had to buy an album! His belief in himself and in the power of his music is something that encourages us to transcend labels and preconceptions. His voice is earthy and wounded and, despite his astonishing upper register, not something you would describe as "angelic. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Its lyrics could be dazzlingly imagistic. And there's an uncanny moment on the breathtaking "Michicant", a song in part about childhood, where a bicycle bell rings twice, pulling you deeper into Vernon's reverie. I think the success of FEFA was in the lyrics. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Bon Iver, Bon Iver searched for a sense of place as the band outgrew the familiar ones where it had once fit. My instinct is that this is an issue with the pressing... which seems to be verified by the other bad reviews on here. Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2017. Don't get me wrong, the sound was perfect, but what really made it a masterpiece were the lyrics. But then after you throw the vinyl in this stanky wet Chinese dumpster, it would be advisable to hurl a grenade into said stanky wet Chinese dumpster (with supervision of your local Fire Mashal, of course) in order to thoroughly obliterate any remaining pieces of this thoroughly defective piece of detritus. Throughout his decade-plus in the spotlight, Justin Vernon has been a prolific creator, a relentless collaborator, and a fearless explorer. Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2019. The lyrics are still phenomenal, but it's the sound that takes this one home. If you've spent any time in the vicinity of a radio tuned to light rock, you hear the keyboard tone that opens the song and you think Lionel Richie, Richard Marx, and "No One Is to Blame". Where For Emma was stripped down and intimate, Bon Iver is packed with guest musicians, horn sections, strings, and extra vocalists. Even if we don't care for the outdoors, most of us occasionally want to escape our lives, be alone with our thoughts, and see if we can tap into something true. With "i,i", Bon Iver's music remains as unconventional as it always was, and always as excellent. First impressions aren't always the best! I sent one copy to a friend in Colorado who sends me CD's all the time! Blending natural instrumentation supplied by recruited players-- such as string arranger Rob Moose (Antony and the Johnsons, the National, Arcade Fire) and a horn/woodwind section that includes versatile saxophonist Colin Stetson-- with an array of electronic and treated sounds, the album combines varied textures in ways that are ambitious and unusual but often subtle enough to miss on first glance. The bare-bones For Emma was followed by the ambitious, fleshed-out art folk of Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011), which was followed by the glitchy, R&B-tinged art pop of 22, A Million (2016). I purchased this record over a year ago, and I have to say with some authority, this is a record you should certainly purchase. But I would like to hear other listeners feedback! I bought the Vinyl after I discovered they had it available here on Amazon. Pops from static and some slight skips right out of the sleeve. Bon Iver is a band founded in 2007 by American indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. One recurring element is intoxication-- lines about being drunk or high that come with recounted details. The opening of Bon Iver’s set didn’t feature Vernon, but rather a group of Native drummers. In terms of personal presentation, they looked like your average indie band. The narrator takes in what's around him, mixing those thoughts with memories of where he's been. After reading reviews I thought I wasn't going to get a good recording. The songs feel effortless (it sounds like With "i,i", Bon Iver's music remains as unconventional as it always was, and always as excellent. Freed from conventional verse/chorus/bridge/chorus structure, the songs become more like tone poems, patient explorations of moods that proceed deliberately but unpredictably. His conflicted vocals trigger a half-dozen feelings all at once before releasing the tension with a refrain that finds the fleeting moment where the world seems right: "I could see for miles, miles, miles.". It's incredible--a pure gem of a record! I bought "For Emma, Forever Ago," and I really liked it. Since that album's release, Vernon's approach to writing and recording has changed. But the thread between this album and its comparatively skeletal predecessor is Vernon's voice, an instrument that feels warm and personal and close regardless of setting. It's pretty raw and a very solid album. At points, Bon Iver draws on the experiments of Volcano Choir, Vernon's side project with the post-rock outfit Collections of Colonies of Bees (members from that group play on the album). Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2015. Pitchfork is the most trusted voice in music. The band further consists of Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. It was a shock for me at first, expecting a For Emma Forever Ago (FEFA) duplicate. Bon Iver’s current live setup mirrors that electro-organic quality that has defined their last two albums. Yet, heard in context, it stands as one the record's bravest and most deftly executed moments-- not just because it lays bare Vernon's stated admiration for artists like Bonnie Raitt and Bruce Hornsby, but because it's executed to perfection. Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2017. Throughout, there's a strong sense of an observer taking things in and processing confusing images, trying to figure out what can be learned. Album Review: While it would be inaccurate to call Bon Iver’s "i,i" frontman Justin Vernon's "happy album," it lets in some sunshine. "Part of me, apart from me," Vernon sings early on, and those six words hold a lot. I ordered this along with three other records that came tightly packed in the same box, this one however was distorted it seems to wobble as it spins, not sure if this is the cause of the distortion but its not too noticeable for the average person so ill probably just continue to use it rather than buying elsewhere. The majority of that album was recorded while Vernon spent three months isolated in a cabin in western Wisconsin. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. The evocative nature of his diction is apparent even in a simple line like "I was not magnificent." Bon Iver’s debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, was immensely popular in a kind of way that seemed to undoubtedly foretell disaster, or at least some sort of disappointment, for its successor.This was because Emma wasn’t exactly well-regarded due to, say, originality or whatever, but because of the album’s background, its mythology, and how it perfectly presented its narrative. I let all my friends come over and listen to Bon Iver at my patio table, when I have them over for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner! I hope he's enjoying it as much as I do. Bon Iver – ‘i, i’ review Previous Bon Iver albums worked through the seasons, the hushed 'For Emma, Forever Ago’ representing winter. "I wanted to build a sound from scratch and then use that sound to make the song." Where "Beach Boys harmonies" have a spiritual undercurrent that brings to mind a choirboy's dream of perfection, Vernon sounds like a man who has outgrown such ideas. I feel as though this album could carry me through every high and low of my life. Bon Iver brought an evening of transcendent solos, rich arrangements, and fervent collaboration to a mesmerized crowd. In a time of easy distraction, the idea of heading into a cabin at the edge of the world to create is alluring. You can still see all customer reviews for the product. I discovered Bon Iver last year and fell in love instantly. There's a problem loading this menu right now. You can feel it even as you don't completely understand it-- a testament to its careful construction and Vernon's belief in the power of music to convey deeper meaning. I was very surprised. I listen to it every night and it relaxes me and puts me to sleep. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Replacement was defective. Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2012. Got here fast, the music however sounds slightly distorted. Bon Iver, Bon Iver is wrought using a dazzling pointillism. Then I threw some Bon Iver into a Pandora station and it was over from there. It's funny because I kept saying, "there's not enough Bon Iver in my Bon Iver station." As a closer, "Beth/Rest" is more about finding comfort and resolution after a musical experience that asked more questions than it answered. ", "Holocene" contains one of this album's many virtuosic vocal performances. It's a great album to come home to and relax to. Producer Vernon has carefully studded his album with thousands of cul-de-sacs of grace and poise and lavishly attended precision. After retreating to the woods of Wisconsin to record For Emma, Forever Ago, he drew a surrealist roadmap of the … That difference is clear on Bon Iver. Bon Iver isn’t quite a crossover move. The song titles reference actual places ("Calgary") and places that sound real, but aren't ("Hinnom, TX", "Michicant"); they're less about geography and more about putting a name to a state of mind that mixes clarity and surrealism. "Bon Iver" splits the difference between restraint and excess, and in the process finds a healthy ambition often lacking in so many sophomore albums. If you caught Vernon live after For Emma, you gradually saw him putting more and more emphasis on his band, moving Bon Iver from that solitary project into something that felt more like the work of a group. Justin Vernon is a genius and I will be a fan for life. The structure is flawless right up to its conclusion, "Beth/Rest", which has been much remarked upon for its unabashed and unironic embrace of 80s adult contemporary pop sounds. Here, Vernon sounds as though he is … By tying the intimacy of that image to Justin Vernon's music, we're able to take the trip with him. It's a rare thing for an album to have such a strong sense of what it wants to be. This page works best with JavaScript. It's almost naive of Vernon to think he could pull this off. I am an avid listener of metal...how I ever ran across Bon Iver is beyond me. But there are connections. Bon Iver’s ‘i, i’ is About Getting In Touch With Your Human Side Conjuring dread and hopefulness, Justin Vernon blends electronic and acoustic elements into a soulful, kaleidoscopic whole. Justin's Vernon's project started out low-key and largely solo but has grown into an expansive and ambitious full-band affair with brilliant results. The vinyl would not fit on the center spindle at all due to a bad cutting of the center hole. This is one of the best, most beautiful albums ever made. I would recommend taking a chance and getting one. The album I got was very bad quality. Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2012. I need to see more input from other buyers. And while the production attempts to wring something new from a long-maligned sound, the song and voice remain true to Bon Iver as an idea. Bon Iver (/ b oʊ n iː ˈ v ɛər /) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon.. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, independently in July 2007. Bon Iver is somewhat the opposite. The continued success of the Bon Iver experiment is a function of an unblinking vision and the wisdom to know whom to have in the room; i,i maintains the streak. Bon Iver, Bon Iver, from 2011, existed in an impression of America made from fake place names and woodsy rusticism. He puts so much effort into the music and the lyrics, it's always worth buying mercy and supporting him—which is why I bough this vinyl. Its … The Beach Boys have been the primary touchstone for layered vocals in indie music for years, but Vernon's timbre comes from somewhere else entirely. I sent it back and got a replacement, which had the same exact issue. He simultaneously evokes the grain and expression of soul music along with the mythological echoes of folk. "I don't find inspiration by just sitting down with a guitar anymore," he recently told Pitchfork. Vernon has taken that voice, and these arrangements, and crafted an album that unfolds like a suite. They may have repressed after hearing people were having issues. This whole record sounds amazing. I,I takes many mighty swings and at best knocks out a few infield hits, while striking out far too often. Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2020. Pops don't go away no matter how much I brushed it with a static reduction brush. Graham Tolbert /Courtesy of the artist hide caption It takes what was and uses it to move toward what could be. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2017. 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. The vinyl was a heavy press and I didn't have any issues with popping or cracking. Bon Iver only make classics. Bon Iver Collaborates With Bruce Springsteen, Hints At New Album. The guy who recorded an album alone in the woods. Now that we've heard him singing hooks with Kanye West and taking the lead with Gayngs on songs that touch on R&B and soft rock, the general sphere of Vernon's voice is clear. I don't mean it was slightly warped; it literally sat on top of the spindle instead of sliding through the hole. I play Bon Iver, Bon Iver every day, over and over and over and over! I love love love Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Bon Iver! I am new to vinyl but an avid music listener. With a foreboding aura, Van Etten wreathed upon the stage in her … Early on, Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon always appeared slightly bemused by fame; a man dragged from the peaceful solitude of the Wisconsin woods to … I'm setting this up for return and going to try another copy and see if this does the trick. I absolutely love Bon Iver, Bon Iver. On the way there, the music moves like a river, every bend both unpredictable and inevitable as it carves sound and emotion out of silence. 1,098 global ratings | 530 global reviews, Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2020. This album though! Big-pop synths appear, but more in the way a radio hit sounds leaking out of your lover’s earbuds. Which makes sense, because the album deals with escape and the struggle to get outside yourself. I also listen to it in the car, and it keeps me from road raging in rush hour traffic. The holistic style is evident on opener "Perth", which builds from total silence into a crashing peak over the course of four short minutes. Original was defective. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. This batch of pressings needs to be thrown in the trash. Distorted record, still sounds okay though. The way Justin can easily glide through the chill of For Emma and into the homey, campire-like tunes of Bon Iver, then to the modern twist of 22, A Million will always surprise me. And Bon Iver, with its rich and layered arrangements, extends that development in a striking direction that's both logical and surprising. Bon Iver is about flow, from one scene and arrangement and song and memory and word into the next-- each distinct but connected-- all leading to … And not like regular trash, but like the dumpster behind the Chinese restaurant, but not the good Chinese restaurant, the one you only go to if it's late at night because they're open later, but afterwards you always regret going because the eggrolls are too salty and their General Tsao's chicken is too rubbery, so like the vinyls should go in that trash, but maybe like, after it's been raining hard for two days so it's really got a nice stank going. There's something irresistible about the thought of a bearded dude from small-town Wisconsin retreating, heartbroken, to a cabin to write some songs-- especially when the result is a record that sounds as hushed and introspective as Bon Iver's 2007 debut, For Emma, Forever Ago. I had tried out Bon Iver twice before and didn't get it so I passed (granted I only sampled a couple audio samples here so understand that). Bon Iver's Justin Vernon replaces the last album's airless, cluttered laptop-orchestra sound with more organic, approachable textures on i,i. But more importantly, no one else sounds like him. And rather than being tied together by a central theme of loss, Vernon has fully shifted into a more impressionistic mode; these songs are broader and more musically sophisticated than those on For Emma at every turn. Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon Wrote a Song for Ruth Bader Ginsburg Justin Vernon of Bon Iver Performs ’22 (OVER S∞∞N)’ on Late Show. Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago was one of those albums that felt like it could completely define an artist to the point that it was a bit hard to imagine how it could be followed. Vernon posted Bon Iver's lyrics shortly after the album leaked last month, but they're not easy to parse-- the storytelling here is oblique. It will forever be one of my favorite albums, if not the favorite. Bon Iver have imperceptibly moved from requesting close listening to requiring it, and i,i spins a mesmerising web of superficially insubstantial yet intensely majestic music. Three men stood side-by-side on the stage, beating hand drums in a synchronized rhythm and singing a layered melody. Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2018. This line might end up on Justin Vernon's tombstone. A lot of people are not going to like this album. The song draws a line in the sand for anyone with a deep investment in cool, and Vernon stands behind it with confidence. After the closeness and austerity of For Emma, Vernon has given us a knotty record that resists easy interpretation but is no less warm or welcoming. It's clear after four albums that the best Bon Iver is the one that manages to keep the arrangements in check and doesn't swing for the fences. Instead of something that scans as "folk," the music here is more like rustic chamber pop with an experimental edge that makes careful use of arrangement and dynamics. I love love love Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Bon Iver! These days, Vernon is more likely to poke fun at the image, but it endures because it fulfils a fantasy for us as listeners. Bon Iver affiliate and oft-collaborator Sharon Van Etten opened the performance. Bon Iver has always been Justin Vernon’s escape route. Sometimes the lines have a startling specificity ("Third and Lake it burnt away, the hallway/ Was where we learned to celebrate," on "Holocene") and sometimes they contain words that seem to function more as sound ("fide" or "fane" on "Perth"). And the deeper you sink into these tracks, the harder it becomes to extract specifics. He sounds centered and clear while taking stock and allowing memories to be mixed in with the details of the present. Bon Iver is an acquired taste but it truly is a masterpiece. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Bon Iver goes experimental again just like his laat album, which was pretty decent, whilst also sticking to his roots and his style that makes him unique. Bon Iver’s presence on “exile” aimed to prove Swift’s indie bona fides — he is, after all, one of the most well-known indie musicians who remains beloved by critics and fans. Bon Iver is about flow, from one scene and arrangement and song and memory and word into the next-- each distinct but connected-- all leading to "Beth/Rest". It's a simple, brief effect, but it's indicative of how the album uses elemental sounds in unexpected ways. The songs feel effortless (it sounds like Justin Vernon was singing the first things that came to his mind, without overthinking or overworking them), and the productions are …