Musicians have been getting creative with their merchandise options for years, but the new piece from Bon Iver is up there with the most wonderfully on-brand and altogether eyebrow raising we’ve seen in a while.
Perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Justin Vernon and co have announced that there will be new merch available for purchase that is made of “the highest quality canvas flannel fabric”. Bon Iver, canvas material… It could only mean one thing. They’re touting flannies and we couldn’t be more ready to chuck one on. Red, custom-made with the symbols featured on the album art making up a pretty bold print, they’re certainly not your average flanno. Sure, there have always been strange and special edition pieces of merch, but now more than ever before the concept of giving away the music and selling the t-shirt is vital. It makes sense then that they fetch a pretty $75USD per shirt – almost 100 of our Australian gold coins over here ($98 of them to be exact).
In an age where musicians don’t make much money from their actual music, special edition pieces of merchandise are almost a must-have around the release of a new album or tour. Very few other bands would be able to reproduce the same idea because the two (that is, Bon Iver and flannelette shirts) kind of go hand in hand.
Much like the album artwork and promotional materials (we’re talking everything from the packaging to the lyric videos to the murals), the print on the shirt was created by Brooklyn-based artist Eric Timothy Carlson and carries that same cryptic typography.
The shirts are in promotion of their latest album, 22, A Million, and already on pre-order, the humble yet inimitable flannies are a very considered marketing move tapping into a very particular niche.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96t0rlPmn2E
Image: Pitchfork
Damn you, Bon Iver. Having had the latest album from the musical project led by Justin Vernon for just under a month, there’s one thing that sticks out of my mind every time I listen to it: Damn you. Damn you for making this album, and damn you for releasing it this time of year. A time when I have multiple albums on my plate, as well as uni assignments stacking up on my desk. Work is constantly on the edge of tipping me into madness, yet it’s impossible to clear it from my schedule. Why? Because of this damned album, that’s why. Bon Iver has managed to create one of the most addictive albums I’ve ever listened to, and it’s slowly killing me.
I’ve been listening to the album nigh on exclusively since I got it, and new aspects still worm their way out from the niches of the sound. Despite its fairly short running time (it clocks in at about 34 minutes), it boasts a hefty amount of weight. Make no mistake, this is a heavy album. Where some bands can dedicate an hour or more to what eventually equates to not much, Bon Iver manages to cram a helluva lot into a small space.
It opens timidly, with the lead single 22 (OVER S∞∞N) spluttering out of your headphones. There’s an interesting stylistic choice at play in this track and this track alone; the sound occasionally cuts out in one ear, giving the track a flawed feel. It’s almost as if it was a long lost song, with time having eaten away at the recording. As much as I can appreciate artistic stylings in music, I’m glad this one ends at the opening track. When listening through headphones, the effect can be jarring, pulling you from the music to make sure your phone isn’t playing up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISCEilPMNak
10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⊠ ⊠ is next up, and it bursts out of the melancholy the first track inspires. The heavily drum led sound is reminiscent of HEALTH, but without the harshness and cynicism that comes with that. Distortion scars the song, with the over-tuned bass juxtaposed perfectly with Vernon’s silky robotic tones. This is like Bon Iver does Yeezus, and I love it.
And then the maximalism stops. 715 – CRΣΣKS comes on and it’s a beautiful serenade of minimal, autotuned and layered vocals. That’s all there is on this song; much like Woods from the Blood Bank EP it’s all vocals. It’s also the shortest piece on the album, coming in at a mere 2:12. Despite its length, 715 – CRΣΣKS is pretty slow, almost an interlude of sorts. Almost.
33 “GOD” was the third and final single off the album, so there’s nothing too new to cover here. Piano and strings meld together to support Vernon’s vocals, which are significantly stripped back. There’s little actual distortion here, which is interesting considering the opening three tracks. It’s this song that reminds me most of Francis And The Lights’ Friends, which featured Bon Iver earlier this year.
And with that, the pace comes to a screeching halt. After the cracking speed that the first four tracks conducted themselves with, 29 #Strafford APTS is almost a straight folk song, more reminiscent of something off of Bon Iver, Bon Iver than any of its predecessors on this album. A lone acoustic guitar weaves its way through Vernon’s vocals, with only minimal interference to clutter the scene. Brief peaks of distortion shine through, and create this duality between what seems to be the old and new Bon Iver.
The softer sounds continue with 666 ʇ. It begins gently, with only a sparse few elements, a soft guitar lick with almost metronomic production. But as the track continues, the sound swells, following Vernon’s emotional ride. This is one of the more passionate songs on the album (not saying any other of the songs lack passion, just that this is so overflowing with it), and it’s hard not to get swept up into the tornado of sound, all thumping drums and brass and Vernon’s unmistakeable falsetto rising and falling.
https://www.facebook.com/boniverwi/posts/10154627064079416
21 M♢♢N WATER and (8) circle both follow a similar feel, with synths forming a baseline for the smoother sounds of the album to build upon. The first is a little like 715 – CRΣΣKS in its structure, with very little to fill the scene. Again, it’s a shorter piece, which makes the album flow well, if not perfectly. (8) circle is the longest song on the album, and feels like the climax. This is the track where everything culminates into a beautiful eruption of sound. A ballad much like Beth/Rest before it, saxophones are in full swing here with a mix of looped vocals forming the melody. It’s a great, great song, and there’s plenty of substance to keep you coming back to it long after release.
____45_____ isn’t super noteworthy in that it’s similar to the rest of the album. Both short and lighter on the effects, it feels less like a song in its own right and more an intro to 00000 Million, the closer to the album. If the first half of the album was an exercise in a new sound, this is very much a return to form. Not that that’s a bad thing, though. This was the song that was used as a singalong during the initial performances of the album at Vernon’s Eaux Claires festival in Wisconsin, and you can see why. Stripped back to a single piano and Vernon’s voice, it’s raw and powerful. It’s the perfect farewell song to the album.
And then it loops. Trust me, it will loop. You can’t listen to this album only once It’s waaaay too good for that. 22, A Million will keep you listening over and over and over again, which is great.
It is interesting to see the path that Bon Iver is taking, especially when you consider what other artists are doing. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that he was somewhat influenced by what Francis And The Lights did on the aforementioned Friends. Vernon’s penchant for experimentation is not exactly new, and 22, A Million feels like another logical step on this musical path. It has a touch of the “classic” Bon Iver (acoustic guitars and stripped back vocal loops), but even these older touching points are glossed in a sheen of newness.
Vernon has always hinted at a more electronic sounding album, and it’s with this latest record that he’s achieved it. It’s a stunning album and I can’t stop listening.
Image: Fashion Industry Broadcast
Bon Iver has released a new album 22, A Million. It’s here, it’s available, you can stream it right now. I thoroughly implore you to do so (it’s also available on other streaming services and for purchase):
The album has gone against the grain of many releases in 2016; not only was it announced with a few months notice, teased with two early singles and one right before the album, but it actually came out at the proposed release date. Furthermore, it’s short. Many releases this year have travelled well into the 15+ track list range, spanning an hour or more. 22, A Million has ten tracks and is only thirty-four minutes long.
Short, sure, but it’s thirty-four glorious minutes that have truly pushed the boundaries of what Bon Iver is capable of and what audiences were expecting.
I was lucky enough to hear the album in its entirety live earlier this year. Justin Vernon’s own festival Eaux Claires, in Eau Clair, Wisconsin, doubled as the world premiere of the new record. It was an unbelievable performance and I’m so glad the rest of the world can now enjoy the album.
In a recent interview, Vernon spoke to The Guardian about how the album came to be. He spoke about the album’s formation, including his own anxiety and panic attacks, self-discovery and eventual acceptance, all of which laid the foundation for this tremendous album.
Enjoy.
Read more: Justin Vernon wants to talk about his own anxiety to help others
Read more: Bon Iver – A career in ten songs
Image: The Guardian
There’s something strangely satisfying about unboxing videos. They’re posted in the thousands on YouTube whenever a brand new product comes out and it’s always seemed so pointless watching someone else experience the joy of opening something you probably can’t afford right now, but it’s almost impossible to resist feeling some of that joy vicariously. To that end, and with the physical record finally dropping tomorrow (!!!) indie label Jagjaguwar have released a gorgeously soundtracked unboxing video via their Instagram for the third album from Bon Iver, 22, A Million. You can watch it below and try to imagine the feeling you’ll get less than 24 long, long hours from now:
That beautiful background music you’re hearing is Bon Iver’s third single from the album 33 “God”, just one example of the multiple lanes that record travels in. Jagjaguwar also posted another video revealing a 22, A Million newspaper of sorts that’s covered in strange symbols (as most of the promotional material for the record has been) as well as a series of posters for mysterious events (as we’ve seen with Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo this year, they’re likely pop-up shop locations) to their Instagram as well.
They’re slotted to take place in Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Amsterdam and Melbourne (it’s 121 Johnston Street, Fitzroy if you’re lucky enough to live there). One thing is for certain, Justin Vernon and Bon Iver have anticipation for 22, A Million at fever pitch.
22, A Million is out tomorrow via Jagjaguwar.
Read more: 22, A Million: a preview
Read more: Bon Iver, a Career in 10 Songs
Image: Consequence Of Sound
Justin Vernon‘s Bon Iver are just days away from releasing new album 22, A Million. Often reclusive, he hasn’t been giving many interviews in the lead-up to the album. He did speak to The Guardian, though, and among many other interesting comments on fame, photography and Beyoncé, he highlighted the need to talk about anxiety.
Four years ago, after the release of his last album, he almost walked away from music entirely. “I had mental stuff, stuff I felt needed healing. And as morose or self-involved as it is, I felt that the only thing I could do was to go into myself a little bit.”
“I had this huge idea and I didn’t have the wherewithal to go through with it.” In an attempt to heal, he visited the Greek island of Santorini on an ill-fated vacation.
“I’m a horrible planner, so I went in off-season and there’s no restaurants open and there’s nobody there. And so I just feel pulverised: dealing with some unrequited love situation-slash-just knowing that that isn’t even the issue, I’m the issue, I need to get my shit straight.”
It was at this point where Vernon experienced his first panic attack. “It was like: ‘Oh my god, my chest is caving in, what the fuck is going on?’
“I don’t like talking about it, but I feel it’s important to talk about it, so that other people who experience it don’t feel it’s just happening to them.”
He began seeking treatment for depression upon his return home. But as any sufferer knows, you often get a lot worse before you get better. “It was bad, bad, bad and then really bad, for a long time. I’d say I was having very bad days for about a year and a half.”
While the self-explained “European horribleness” was traumatic and triggering, it also birthed the album we’re about to hear. “I kept moving hotels because I was, like: ‘Well, this is completely depressing, I’d better go to a different place.’” It was here that he began humming the line, “It might be over soon” the already familiar lead line from recent single, 22 (OVER S∞∞N).
https://youtu.be/ISCEilPMNak
Interestingly, one of Vernon’s biggest sources of inspiration as he began to heal and write, was the one and only Kanye West, in his promotion of self-love and confidence. “Kanye speaks of how you have to love yourself. And believe in yourself. I heard him say something recently: ‘I love myself so other people can love themselves.’ So they get up in the morning and put on a song and be like ‘FUCK YEAH’. And that is what it’s for.”
It’s incredible to see Vernon willing to take his own struggle with mental illness and not only turn it into something creatively brilliant (the album), but to help others. Indeed, it’s a pretty horrible and uncomfortable topic to discuss, but it’s tremendously important to bring a conversation about mental illness to the fore. Seeing well known figures like Vernon open up in this way can absolutely influence and encourage sufferers to not only acquaint themselves with, but to accept it, and themselves, and to understand that they are not – and never will be – alone in their struggle.
Read more: 22, A Million: A Preview
Read our extensive feature on For Emma, Forever Ago
Image: Cameron Wittig
Bon Iver, the musical collective helmed by Justin Vernon is back and making music again after an extended hiatus. Their third album, 22, A Million is to be released next Friday. Unlike other long-awaited releases this year from artists like Frank Ocean and Kanye West, the whole process of release for 22, A Million has been organic and largely free of drama and distraction.
Just days out from his annual Eaux Claires festival in his beloved Wisconsin hometown, Vernon announced that Bon Iver would be playing their new record in full at the festival, a promise he fulfilled to a rapturous crowd. Hidden in booklets that were handed out at the entrance were lyrics to the final song 00000 Million, which Vernon had the crowd sing from along with him. The entire set can be viewed on YouTube and there have been mixed opinions, but the general consensus seems to be that 22, A Million is Bon Iver’s most ambitious record to date. Vernon held a press conference where he debuted the recorded version of the album, cramming 27 journalists into Eau Claires’ Oxbow Hotel and delving deep into the creation and inspiration of the record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISCEilPMNak
Three singles have been released thus far and each takes the Bon Iver sound in a different direction. 22 (OVER S∞∞N) is a riptide of emotion, ebbing and flowing over soft guitars and warbling noise, written after a listless trip Vernon took to the Greek Islands. 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄ samples a Stevie Knicks outtake of Wild Heart, its harsh and discordant production that rumbles and distorts in your ears reminiscent of some of the darker moments from Yeezus, no small coincidence given Vernon’s close working relationship with Kanye West on that album and on others. 33 “God” blends old elements of Bon Iver, a lilting piano and a folky, faintly-plucked banjo over similar thumping electronic production. The track also samples a Paolo Nutini song in Iron Sky as well as Morning by the late country singer Jim Ed Brown.
Though not officially released in digital format yet, the fourth song to be heard (with >phone quality at least) from the record is 8 (circle), a sprawling and emotive track with pop ballad undertones reminiscent of several tracks from Bon Iver’s self-titled sophomore album. Bon Iver played the track on The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon, enlisting the help of Sydney songstress and Jagjaguwar labelmate Gordi in its performance.
So what else do we know about the album? Saxophones are set to feature heavily. The band enlisted a small troop of them to play behind them at Eaux Claires and we’ve already heard a mournful one cutting like a knife through 22 (OVER S∞∞N). You’ll also hear one of the until now untitled songs from Bon Iver’s 2015 set at Eaux Claires, where he debuted new material but gave scant clues as to whether any of it would be released. That will be 666 ʇ (pronounced “666 upside down cross”), with thunderous percussion underneath production that sounds almost like a dripping tap and a warm and fuzzy electric guitar riff.
As far as the overall sound of the record, Vernon credited a loop they made on a Roland drum machine. Production is sparse and discordant, though faint glimmers of the acoustic folk that rocketed Bon Iver to worldwide renown on For Emma, Forever Ago occasionally pop through, 22, A Million is Bon Iver embracing technology and bending and twisting it across an album, where before it was used to accentuate songs that largely fell within the realm of folk. If you’re looking for a comparison, Woods wouldn’t feel out of place on this record but neither would The Wolves Act 1 & 2.
The album will also be the shortest of Bon Iver’s discography, clocking in at just 34:10. By comparison, For Emma, Forever Ago hit 37:19 and Bon Iver, Bon Iver ran to 39:25. There are 10 tracks total, the longest being the aforementioned 8 (circle) at 5:09 and the shortest being 715 – CRΣΣKS at 2:12. The album begins at a fast pace, the first three tracks all sub-three minutes before spreading out across the latter half.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5sB6AqJkM
The themes of the album are somewhat difficult to determine based on song titles and lead singles alone. There certainly seems to be religion involved (666 ʇ, 33 “God”). Where Bon Iver, Bon Iver ground itself in places, 22, A Million opts for numbers, each song’s title reflective of a different number with particular meaning to Vernon (22 for instance was his jersey number playing sports growing up). As Trevor Hagen, a longtime friend of Justin Vernon and one of his former bandmates, put it in a part open letter, part biography on Vernon. “The ten songs of 22, A Million are a collection of sacred moments, love’s torment and salvation, contexts of intense memories, signs that you can pin meaning onto or disregard as coincidence. If Bon Iver, Bon Iver built a habitat rooted in physical spaces, then 22, A Million is the letting go of that attachment to a place”.
22, A Million almost never happened. Vernon found himself burnt out after touring for so long and his creative well seemed to be running dry. As Hagen details: “It all came to a head on an empty Atlantic beach. I bore witness to my best friend crying in my arms, lost in a world of confusion and removal. Justin could barely even talk.” That this record, the culmination of five years of soul-searching, mental anguish and personal breakthroughs, is finally almost here is a small wonder.
Whatever your take on the new direction of this record, whether it excites you for the future, whether it grabs you as Bon Iver’s best effort to date or whether it leaves you bitterly wistful for the sonic simplicity (by comparison) of For Emma, there’s no denying that Justin Vernon is one of the most intriguing, complex and abundantly talented musical minds of the 21st century.
22, A Million is out September 30th via Jagjaguwar
Read more: Bon Iver, A Career In 10 Songs
Image: More Than The Melody
With a new album, his third overall, on the way in just under a month, Bon Iver is finally, thankfully, well and truly back. The music collective helmed by the enigmatic and multitalented Justin Vernon, Bon Iver have been largely inactive since 2011’s self-titled sophomore LP. There were doubts as to whether Vernon would ever release more music under the moniker.
His own curated festival in Wisconsin’s Eaux Claires saw their return to the stage last year, where audiences were given a tantalising taste of new music, Bon Iver playing two brand new (as yet unidentified) songs and blowing the crowd away. With an 11th hour announcement before their set at this year’s Eaux Claires that they would be debuting their new album 22, A Million live and in its entirety, fans went into near meltdown.
A release date has been announced for September 30th as well as three new singles that have come thus far in the ambitious and atmospheric 33 “God”, the emotional swell of 22 (OVER S∞∞N) and 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄, a track that seems to demonstrate that past collaborator Kanye West, who said he loved Bon Iver “like Kanye loves Kanye”, has had his influence rub off on Vernon, the dark and minimalistic production an allusion to the direction of Yeezus.
Vernon also held a press conference over the weekend where he discussed the album at length with journalists, revealing his current headspace, his inspirations and collaborations behind the new record and how he created some of the sounds you will hear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5sB6AqJkM
Bon Iver has helped to soundtrack the lives of an entire generation, many through the same kind of heartbreak and pain that first drove Vernon into that Wisconsin cabin to record, uplifting them along the way.
To help these same Bon Iver fans cross the seemingly eternal chasm of time between now and September 30th, we’ve put together a list of ten, perhaps not the highly subjective best Bon Iver songs, but certainly personal favourites and high points from his wonderful career so far.
10. Woods
Few artists have managed to take the often-maligned studio technique of autotuning and put it to such evocative use as Bon Iver and there is no better example of this than Woods. Barren of instrumentation or production, Woods is simply a stunning collection of different voices, twisted and manipulated and warped to create a soundscape resembling a gnarled winter forest and one that will give you utter chills. It seems to tell the story of the creation of For Emma, Forever Ago, as Vernon croons about being “up in the woods/I’m down on my mind/I’m building a still/to slow down the time.”
A track so good that it caught the attention of the aforementioned Kanye West, who sampled it to stunning effect in the penultimate track from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in Lost In The World. Woods was the curtain call on Bon Iver’s Blood Bank EP, a bridging point between For Emma and Bon Iver, Bon Iver and provided a taste of the direction his sound would take on the latter. It will take your breath away to this very day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZYVJlhnqxQ
9. Re: Stacks
The final track on his breathtaking debut, Re: Stacks was another masterful example of imagery from Bon Iver. Using gambling terminology to describe a relationship, one that self-destructed and left little but remorse like a degenerate gambler feels after he’s tossed away his money, his “stacks” in a drunken haze. More though it felt like Vernon opening the door to the cabin he confined himself in for three months writing and recording For Emma, stepping across the threshold and feeling free of burden again.
With his gorgeous falsetto never gentler, Vernon strums a simple acoustic guitar to close the curtain on one of the finest albums of the last 20 years, each staccato syllable of the chorus of “on your back with your racks as he stacks your load/in the back with the racks and he stacks your load/in the back with the racks and you’re unstacking your load” feels like a step out the door and forward, completely purged of guilt and self-doubt and all of the other emotions Vernon laid down to record on For Emma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhDnyPsQsB0
8. I Can’t Make You Love Me/Nick Of Time
While not an original Bon Iver song, I Can’t Make You Love Me originally existing as a Bonnie Raitt power ballad from 1991, the lamentation and eventual acceptance of an impending break-up. Recorded during a studio session and never commercially released, Vernon strips away all the production and takes a wholly organic approach to the song. With just himself and a grand piano, he accomplishes that rare musical feat of making a cover better than the original.
His falsetto may be burdened with heartache but it doesn’t clip its wings, the lightness of his soaring voice contrasting gorgeously with the mournful piano chords laid underneath. The master stroke is when he flips the song on its head and gives it a happy ending, blending it seamlessly with another Bonnie Raitt song in Nick Of Time, a more positive tune about finding love right when you need it.
Just like that, Bon Iver turned a saccharine love ballad into an honest tear-jerker. More on his near inherent ability to do that later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3VjaCy5gck
7. Creature Fear/Team
Creature Fear from For Emma starts off innocuously enough, a stilted and jaunty folk song with a tottering acoustic guitar but then evolves into so much more. A waterfall of choral vocals, a rare instance of electric guitar, bass and simple bashing percussion on an album largely bereft of them and Vernon’s voice rising to an emotion-soaked high over the chorus before falling away once more into the same laidback folk vibe, only to rise again and lead effortlessly into its steady instrumental addendum in Team.
Creature Fear examines the crossroads of a relationship, almost fearful of the future, Team lets that sentiment wash over the listener, each crashing drum beat pushing them down the same uncertain road Vernon is contemplating. As Vernon softly whistles out the sprawling tune, another high point and another song that stands on its own, you get the sense that the tracks making up For Emma are nine separate pillars, each bearing its own load in holding up not just an album but a personal journey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Ky0eYHTdw
6. The Wolves (Act I and II)
A track that perfectly encapsulates not just the isolation of the Wisconsin cabin it was recorded in but the threat presented by the metaphorical ‘wild wolves’ encircling it. The opening line ‘some day my pain will mark you’ is laced heavily with post-breakup bitterness, the silences punctuating the song confronting to the point of painful. It’s a claustrophobic track, full of dusty creaks and jarring noises and one of Bon Iver’s first experimentations with autotune, an effect that Vernon somehow manipulated to infuse his vocals with even more emotion where other artists have dulled the impact of theirs with it.
The roaring crescendo of noise that plays The Wolves out as Vernon howls pleading to let go of ‘what might have been lost’ is an emotional hurricane and one of the most desperate and hopeless points on For Emma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9lrVZdaluk
5. Holocene
The Holocene period in Earth’s history coincided with the Mesolithic age in history, where primitive humans moved from exclusively hunting to the first signs of domestication. Of humanity. The second single from Bon Iver’s second studio effort, Holocene, while it might have been principally named after a bar in Portland, nonetheless really feels like Vernon has found his own humanity after steadily trying to build it back up in For Emma. The chorus hook of “I can see for miles, miles, miles” feels ever appropriate, having left his perch behind the famous frosted cabin window that makes up the album cover of For Emma and stepping into the wide world anew, a place Vernon acknowledges here that he is but a small part of.
Bon Iver’s most commercial effort by far, Holocene is soft and twinkling and gentle with seemingly deliberate pop infectiousness and none of the undercurrent of heartbreak that permeated even the most upbeat efforts of For Emma. It went over huge with critics, perhaps unjustifiably losing out for song of the year to Adele’s Rolling In The Deep at the 2011 Grammys, though Bon Iver would still scoop up gongs for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album.
Most importantly though, Holocene felt like an awakening and sweet redemption for Vernon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWcyIpul8OE
4. Flume
Not just dealing with abject heartbreak in For Emma, Justin Vernon was wretched with mononucleosis hepatitis alone in that cabin. Album opener Flume is him introducing Bon Iver positively weak with sickness. The fragility and abandonment and almost utter defeat in his voice as he softly croons “I am my mother’s only one” is uncomfortably palpable.
Flume was a musically uncomplicated introduction, anchored by ambling folk chords juxtaposed with jarring intermissions of metallic noise, layered vocals across the mournful chorus and the creaks and groans of the cabin almost audible. Bon Iver ensured the listener would be hooked beyond retrieval from the very moment For Emma opened, a grip that hasn’t loosened since.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62i9Sodwp5o
3. Beth/Rest
There are some Bon Iver fans who look upon Beth/Rest with slight distaste. The power ballad elements like the melodramatic piano, the cheesy synths and the overblown guitar solo that sound like outtakes from a Phil Collins album are enough to put people off, so markedly different was the sound from Bon Iver’s stark breakout debut. Look beyond the simple sonic aesthetics and truly appreciate what Vernon has accomplished here though, managing to take musical elements that are usually maligned as vacuous and infusing them with so much emotion and raw feeling where the singer-songwriters from the 80s he channels here were totally devoid of it.
His voice positively soars across the track, visiting so many peaks and valleys along the way. Known for his experimentation with phrasing and words, his ability to take lexicon from a bygone era and revive it with meaning again has never been more on display in his stream of consciousness lyrics. Lines like “the hawser rolls, the vessel’s whole and Christ, it’s thin” and “all the news at the door, all the revelry, well its hocked inside of everything you said to me” are simultaneously meaningless yet devastating, the climactic line before the guitar solo rips in “I ain’t living in the dark no more, it’s not a promise, I’m just gonna call it” is defiantly heartbroken.
The true meaning behind Vernon’s lyrics is almost mythical at times. The man himself has never been one to delve too deeply into any particular line in a song or attribute more than just the vaguest of meanings and messages to any of his music. Beth/Rest manages to be meaningless yet meaningful all at once. That Bon Iver can entwine such profound lyricism around such overblown production and make it work this well is an astounding credit to Vernon’s musicianship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ssHe4i8yhk
2. Blindsided
Blindsided is perhaps one of Bon Iver’s finest uses of imagery. The song, a barren and wintery soundscape of just a repetitive acoustic bass and a muffled kick pedal slowly building to a gorgeous chorus with scene-conjuring lyrics as Vernon sings about crouching “like a crow/contrasting the snow” and “I’m crippled and slow/For the agony I’d rather know”. Vernon told the crowd at 2015’s Eaux Claires that he wrote this song about an attempt to break into the Wisconsin and Minnesota Credit Union building but the scene woven in the song could have been the discovery of a cheating partner, the lyrics are that malleable.
It’s difficult not to get shivers at multiple points throughout Blindsided, Vernon’s falsetto blowing in like a gust of winter air over the choruses, falling away to a baritonal whisper over the verses. The song’s slow build makes the eventual payoff utterly spinetingling, yet another example on For Emma where Bon Iver are able to build a swell of emotion over several minutes and bring it crashing down upon the listener a tidal wave.
Blindsided is one of the most delicate points on For Emma, and stands as one of Vernon’s best lyrical efforts of his entire career.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy3lJIxyZ60
1. Skinny Love
Bon Iver’s most famous song to date and the one that resonates the deepest is Skinny Love, an open letter to a lost love for all intents and purposes, its emotional delivery having the impact of a tonne of bricks. No relationship is ever easy and quite often they become one-sided, one party needing support and patience and love and the other unwilling or unable to give it and Skinny Love captures that sadness perfectly.
Catchy, bouncing chord progression and simple kick drum and handclap percussion, that same idiosyncratic Bon Iver build between chorus and verse, the cracks and strain in Vernon’s voice as he pleads for this skinny form of love to “just last the year”, as he tells his love “to wreck it all/cut out all the ropes and let me fall”. It’s soul-shattering upon first listen and the experience rarely dulls.
Skinny Love captures the spirit of For Emma so perfectly, Vernon laying his soul bare with nothing but raw honesty and unyielding emotion and it still stands as one of the greatest songs of the last decade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxMHjTMkLHw
Regardless of what 22, A Million brings, the next chapter in the Bon Iver story is one we have been waiting on for what seems like an eternity. After so much doubt as to whether it would even happen, we’re just excited to see Bon Iver making music again and hope it’s not their last hurrah.
22, A Million is out September 30th via Jagjaguwar.
Image: The Awesome Cave
Justin Vernon of Bon Iver invited a small number of press outlets to a press conference in his home town of Eau Clair, Wisconsin this weekend, to talk about his upcoming album 22, A Million.
27 journalists descended upon the small town, where the conference was held at the Oxbow Hotel, a currently unopen property that Vernon, an investor, plans to transform into “Eau Claire’s first boutique hotel.”
Vernon previously performed his entire new album at Eaux Claires Festival, which he held in the same town last month. Here, however, he debuted the recorded version of the album, and fielded many questions about the album, its creation, inspiration and more. he entire record played out start to end, after which Vernon came out for a Q&A session that lasted close to two hours.
Bon Iver’s press conference. Image: Graham Tolbert / Pitchfork
Drum machines & new sounds
“I was feeling a lot of anxiety,” said Vernon, attributing “the sound” of the album to a loop created by a Roland drum machine. “The beat got me up and out of my seat and made me want to break it down. It was finished right when we made it and we had to sit on it for three years.”
Of course, this backing alone provides the album with a very different sound to his previous work. The three songs we’ve so far heard have demonstrated a big shift and expansion on his sound. “I think it’s that thing of wanting to bash things apart a little bit and break through some stuff. And I needed it to sound a little radical to feel good about putting something out in the world.”
One of the newly released singles also has a Stevie Nicks sample, but has remained uncredited as per Nicks’ request. “She requested that we not talk about it in the liner notes. I respected her wishes. Mostly didn’t want to get asked about working together when we didn’t work together. And I totally get that. It’s from my favourite YouTube video of all time. It’s just her warming up in 1981 getting her hair did and singing her song Wild Heart, which in my opinion was never properly recorded. There’s this beautiful YouTube of her singing and someone offstage singing harmony. It’s just the best piece of music. That little bit “wild wild wild heart,” that’s that sample.”
https://youtu.be/HNy7VtSsmu8
Moving on from sadness
“For me, it’s not embarrassing, but the old records are of this kind of sad nature—I was healing myself through that stuff. Being sad about something is okay. And then wallowing in it, circling though the same cycles emotionally just feels boring. For this one, there’s still some dark stuff and whatever, but I think cracking things, making things that are bombastic and exciting and also new, and mashing things together, and explosiveness and shouting more, I think that was the zone. I think shouting. Whispering was maybe the thing before. But this time—[hits his keyboard and makes a loud robot sound]”
Inspiration & collaboration
Vernon spoke about how the song 22 (OVER S∞∞N) was inspired by a bad trip to Greece. “Don’t go to the Greek Islands off season by yourself,” he said. “Trying to find myself and I did not. I felt really poor. And I just heard this chorus in my head, ‘This feeling might be over soon.’” That ended up turning into the opening line of the album’s first song.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISCEilPMNak
The album is dedicated to Richard Buckner and Vernice Johnson Reagon, of a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. Drawing inspiration for his own work from these artists, Vernon said, “Richard Buckner has 13 albums and every one of them is perfect. Lyrics can’t be more flowing and more impressionistic. Found myself falling into a land or a dream and suspending disbelief more listening to his lyrics. Sound things out and find out what it means later. Gave me the courage to write like that.
“With Bernice, I’ve cared about her singing for so long. Hear her voice on the Ken Burns Civil War documentary series. Singing a black spiritual song and being a choir by herself. How she internalised it all and how she got to be all those singers. She was able to change her voice so radically. Mike Patton has nothing on her.”
He also spoke about how he was inspired by collaborating with other people, both on his own record and others. “I almost quit on [the record], in January of this year… Sort of tired of it, and tired of working on it, and my friend Ryan Olson [of Gayngs] slapped me and said “uh-uh.”
“After we did the Gayngs album, when Ryan put that whole thing together, it was the wildest fun times around a lot of people making music. Around the same time Kanye West asked me to go out to Hawaii and record around a bunch of people. Felt the same. Just a bunch of people sitting around making songs. I think about Ryan and I think about Kanye, and they can show you how to be yourself more. They’re kind and they can tell you that this can be better. See what kind of mayhem you make when everybody’s in a room together. It lengthens you. It makes you stand up taller and improve yourself.”
Photography
Bon Iver’s new press photos are quite distorted, and you can’t see Vernon’s face. Why? “Really don’t like to see pictures of myself. Like when you listen to Pink Floyd you don’t think about what David Gilmour looks like. Pictures and music go hand in hand. But I am not trying to do that. I don’t really love meeting too many people, because I don’t have time to be their friend. Faces are for friends only. That’s what I think.”
Huh?
Finally, Bon Iver mercifully helped radio journalists around the world by explaining the pronunciation of some of his new song names. For instance, 29 #Strafford APTS = “29 hashtag Strafford apartments.” 666 ʇ is “666 upside down arrow’, and ____45_____ is just “45.”
Bon Iver’s new album 22, A Million will be out on September 30.
Bon Iver’s press conference. Image: Graham Tolbert / Pitchfork
Source: Pitchfork
Image: Cameron Wittig and Crystal Quinn
Bon Iver‘s For Emma, Forever Ago and its eponymous follow-up have left an indelible mark on the last decade. Yet if anything, what we’ve heard from upcoming third LP 22, A Million has gently pushed neo-folk precedents aside for something altogether different. Latest cut, 33 “God” continues this affirmation.
A minimalist piano introduction gives way to Vernon’s augmented falsetto vocals. Studio experimentation pervades as vocoded backing vocals and bit-crushed hip hop beats permeate the track. Yet there’s still some latent idyll, a fingerpicked banjo sits buried within the mix and Justin Vernon’s vocals project serenity even at their most aggressive. But for 33 “God” it’s less of the group’s typically melancholic drift and more a climactic ascension.
Bon Iver’s albums have always been lavishly produced, but 22, A Million could be their first overtly “studio album.” Pitch-shifted vocals, sampling of Italian pop singer Paolo Nutini‘s Iron Sky and experimental production nuance cut closer to conventional pop than the group has ventured before. Yet far from off-putting, the results so far suggest that this next album is shaping up to be something truly worthwhile.
22, A Million is out September 30 on Jagjaguwar via Inertia Music. See the full tracklist below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5sB6AqJkM&feature=youtu.be
22, A Million Tracklist:
1. 22 (OVER S∞∞N)
2. 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄
3. 715 – CR∑∑KS
4. 33 “GOD”
5. 29 #Strafford APTS
6. 666 ʇ
7. 21 M◊◊N WATER
8. 8 (circle)
9. ____45_____
10. 00000 Million
Image: NME.com
After releasing two incredible tracks, the soothing 22 (OVER S∞∞N) and the gloomy, Kanye-esque 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄ just days ago, Bon Iver, the creative project lead by Justin Vernon has now announced the release of their third studio album titled 22, A Million.
Fans at the Eaux Claires Music & Arts Festival in Vernon’s hometown were lucky enough to be treated to a full performance of the of the upcoming album, with some going as far to say that the project looks to be his best yet. We were on hand to witness it all live:
#justinvernon #boniver #22amillion #eauxclairesThe ten track deep album is described as part love letter, part self-understanding, made up of a collection of sacred moments, love torments and intense memories from Vernon’s past. 22, A Million is seen as a release from the habitat Bon Iver’s self-titled sophomore album introduced us to.
If you fancy reading a little bit more into the project, Vernon’s longtime friend and collaborator Trever Hagen wrote a blog post about the album which you can read here, and the full list of album credits have been released here.
The wait is on, 22, A Million is out Friday, September 30. In addition to this, worldwide tour dates will be announced soon, so keep your eyes open for some Australian dates. In the meantime checkout the live performance of the album below, and try not to get too excited!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbZ3lbqDRc
22, A Million Tracklist:
1. 22 (OVER S∞∞N)
2. 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄
3. 715 – CR∑∑KS
4. 33 “GOD”
5. 29 #Strafford APTS
6. 666 ʇ
7. 21 M◊◊N WATER
8. 8 (circle)
9. ____45_____
10. 00000 Million
Album Art by NYC-based artist Eric Timothy Carlson
Image: Hypetrak