Bon Iver albums

2007

For Emma, Forever Ago - 91%

            This is an interesting premise: an album that recorded by a recluse in a cabin in the woods that actually came out to be a masterpiece of slow, atmospheric folk music. Usually with this kind of stuff the story is better than the music, but this time it is very real and unique. Justin Vernon has been in a variety of bands throughout the decade but this psyudonym signals a new beggining for him, and he comes off sounding like a mix of TV on the Radio and Iron and Wine. "Flume" sets off the mood of the album: cool and reflective, sober and honest, melodic and humble. The album continues with some of the best folk songs this decade has to offer including "Skinny Love", "Blindsided", and "Re: Stacks". "For Emma" is the title track and probably the most accessible of all, with a horn section, pedal steel, and a chugging type guitar part. The most promising (though not necessarily "best") tracks are "The Wolves" and "Creature Fear/Team". Both are two part suites that work in different ways, but at the same time display a kind of naive mentality, almost like Vernon has some good ideas but doesn't quite know how to express them. This could come back to haunt him in the future or, even better, those two songs could point to more ambitious projects. Whatever the future holds for Vernon and whatever name he goes under, I definitely recomend checking it out. I can find something to like on every song on For Emma, Forever Ago. Awesome albums like this don't just "occur" naturally, no matter how natural they might sound.

2011

Bon Iver - 66%

Somewhere along the line, Vernon forgot to right melodies that stuck. With his first album, a breath of fresh air was added to the cannon of folk music with an unassuming album of melodic folk rock and electronic touches. On this one, the studio effects try to replace the lack of substance. The biggest offenders are ""Hinnom tx", "Minnestoa wi", and "Wash". There are some great tunes that ebb and flow, the opener "Perth" and wistful "Holocene", as well as the driving "Calgary". In all it is a mess, but not totally without merrit. Success tends to effect an artist's work like this. Odd ending with the Peter Gabriel ish "Beth/rest". There is still a lot of talent and potential...

2014

Repave – 81%

When Justin Vernon joined Justin Mueller and Thomas Wincek for the project Volcano Choir, a certain sense of community was born. The songs became meaningful beyond whoever wrote them, beyond whoever sang them, as all aspects blended together into a mesh of chamber folk to timeless to name. "Comrade" illustrates this better than any song on the album, sounding like the theme to The Last Supper and adding that sense of community. When music can lift your spirits in the idiom of folk rock, it can lead to magical moments, at once recalling Simon and Garfunkel as well as The National suggesting some kind of natural midpoint between them. "Acetate" and "Byegone" generate the kind of energy that is rare to find in rock music- inspirational yet unfinished, like discovering a new planet but not knowing whether or not the native aliens will want to kill you or show you how to live there. Much more than Bon Iver's self titled album, Volcano Choirs Repave points to new possibilities.

Best Tracks: Byegone, Almanacs, Acetate