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Album Details
- Artist: Bon Iver
- Album: Bon Iver, Bon Iver
- Label: Jagjaguwar
- Year of Release: 2011
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: toddlevinsonfrank on 2011-07-20
RecommendThe new Bon Iver record just doesn't sound like anything else. Nowadays it seems that's the last frontier: unique originality. There's only so many notes. You're not going to think of anything that Miles Davis or Leonard Bernstein didn't already come up with. Everything else is Beatlesque or ripping off the Stones (who were rip-off artists).
So while it used to be good enough to just sound like something that was already considered great and successful, at some point being completely new and "indescribable" was the new benchmark. It wasn't enough to combine genres, the best artists could defy them.
It probably started with invention of hip-hop and rap music in the late 70's and it's subsequent explosion in the 80's. Sure, they literally and physically combined genres, but it didn't sound like anything else ever. Later, Radiohead came along. Their earliest work was guitar-drums driven, but they morphed into something from the future. Something indescribable. You might make the case that more recent critics darlings My Morning Jacket have that "dude you just gotta here 'em" factor that would put them in this category.
Interestingly, both Radiohead's Thom Yorke and My Morning Jacket's Jim James have something else in common: they like to do a lot of their work in falsetto, their high vocals often serving as both an attraction and a deal-breaker for the listeners that just didn't like it.
Wait a minute.... Fleet Foxes, an even more recent It Band That Everybody Loves, also has some really high voices too! And while they've drawn the inevitable CSNY and Byrds comparisons, they really don't sound like anything. Certainly not much like most popular music out there these days. They're like a soundtrack for doing yard work at a renaissance festival.
All these groups, as beloved as they might be by most critics and many fans, they all also fall onto a lot of people's short list of "Bands I Just Don't Get." You hear that mostly with Radiohead, but also with My Morning Jacket and Fleet Foxes. People will assume/admit that they must be "good" and for whatever reason they don't get them.
And somehow that brings us back to Bon Iver. Justin Vernon has that love-it-or-hate-it voice that is seemingly always operating in the upper register or falsetto. For Emma, Forever Ago, his debut album (the meteoric rise, remote cabin-to-Kanye success story retold everywhere else), attracted lazy "Blood on the Tracks meets Nebraska" analogies and hyperbole. At the time, and even after several tries (everyone said the album was brilliant, I really want to like this), I just didn't get it (eventually I did). Emma could at least be pegged as an "acoustic affair" from a singer/songwriter, but this new one doesn't sound like anything. In the world.
So, in my Seinfeld voice, What's the deeeeal with rock critics? Do they just love high voices? Do they assign genius to that which they can't describe? Radiohead, MMJ, Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver. Are you seeing the pattern here? Or is the falsetto vocals simply a coincidence and maybe it's the indescribable "unique originality" that they have in common? I don't know. You just gotta hear 'em.
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Log In or Register to Rate Albumson 2011-07-28 CharlesMartel Said:
I feel the same. There is a lot of hype, but in truth not a lot of substance to justify it. I see potential, but unrealised as such. Check out Strands of Oak for something along the same lines but truly good.
Not Rated
Review:
on 2011-07-27 tosnob Said:
I'm quick to admit that the whirlwind of hype that surrounded Bon Iver's debut album. From where I sit it sounds boring and listless, and at times even grating. It's also lost on me why it's Bon Iver and not 'Bon Hiver', but that's a discussion for another time.
On June 21st Justin Vernon's "group" release their highly-anticipated sophomore album, Bon Iver.
The album is more lush and fuller sounding than the debut. The cozy, bedroom feeling has been shed for a more well-rounded sound that edges towards Fleet Foxes territory. That's apparent from the lively opener "Perth", whose drums sound absolutely thunderous when placed in context with the fragile vocals. Horns mix with banjo to surprisingly effective results on "Minnesota, WI", a track that has an inexplicable Peter Murphy aura to it.
Somewhere in the middle of the album though, I'd peg it between "Michicant" and "Hinnom, TX", Vernon seems to run out of steam. The songs become interchangeable, with little of note to help distinguish one from another.
There are a few exceptions. The rudimentary piano on "Wash." holds promise, but it fades into the bland vacuum fairly quickly. An interesting beat propels "Calgary", helping it grow into a much-needed mid-tempo number. The album closer, "Beth/Rest", seems to be inspired by '80s pop schlock. It's a wretched song, but at least it lends some variety to the record.
While Bon Iver gets off to a promising start, it is just too much of the same (incredibly boring) stuff. It still leaves me scratching my head as to why so many people love Bon Iver. There is only one reason I can come up with: they must be insomniacs.
Rating: 4/10
on 2011-07-04 hstisgod Said:
I tried it, I dig the vibe, but not something im dying to have... just not my cup of tea
Not Rated
on 2011-07-04 RutherfordMarsh Said:
While my enthusiasm for this album won't compel me to write "fuck Da Vinci" like the passionate WillKosh, I agree that it is every bit as good as For Emma, Forever Ago- perhaps better. It gracefully skirts on the edge of over-production and lands safely in sheer, honest, emotive intimacy. Thank God for Justin Vernon's stint with Mr. Kanye West: evidently the genius pop-composer has passed on his skills.
Rating: 8/10
Review:
on 2011-07-03 WillKosh Said:
Will Kosh
Bon Iver(Self Titled) Review
As a native Wisconsinite living in Nevada, I don't have a lot to brag about. Sure, we gave the world Butch Vig and Chris Farley, and yeah, Summerfest and Genuine Draft are alright. Still, at the end of the day, Milwaukee is no New York, and Madison just isn't Portland. That's why it was so exciting to hear Eau Claire Wisconsin's Bon Iver for the first time. I was at a bar in Bangalore making small talk with a journalism intern from London (long story) when I decided to ask if she was familiar with Frank Turner. Every Londoner should be. In response to the outrage I expressed when she told me that she wasn't, she asked if I was familiar with Bon Iver (as every midwesterner, especially one from Wisconsin should be). I was embarrassed to say that I hadn't, so I hungrily tracked down Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago and the Blood Bank EP. I was captivated, and therefore I am obligated to gush shamelessly about how amazing the new album is for at least a paragraph. See below.
Bon Iver is as heartbreakingly sincere as it's predecessors. Recorded in solitude in rural Wisconsin, minutes from where Justin Vernon, (who essentialy is Bon Iver) grew up and just a few hours from where I did, the album resonates powerfully with sentimentality and longing. It is the sound of a man at peace with his pain, embracing all aspects of the human experience as melancholic bliss. At least this is how it sounds to me. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone experienced Bon Iver differently, the way ten people, when asked of what a certain cloud might remind them, might each give a different answer. It's the little touches that make Bon Iver magical, and the new album sounds as though it is made of a hundred million little components, collaborating in tandem in an organic explosion of life, like a flower in bloom.
Preceded by a militaristic snare drum, the first track (Perth), is a headstrong opener. It is insistent, and decidedly representative of the Bon Iver sound. Any fan of the previous albums hears forward motion on Perth, and can sense Vernon's dedication. Minnesota WI takes up the gauntlet thrown by track one and continues the quiet epic gracefully. These are songs that feel simple, haunting as they are, and yet employ everything from guitars, to saxophone, to violin to help Vernon create his chillingly beautiful masterpieces.
The closest thing that I might have to a complaint would concern the album's length. Traditionally, forty minutes is a respectable length for an album, but I'm admittedly an unreasonable whiner, and I was far from satisfied by the time I reached the final track. The good news is that the last track, (Beth/Rest) is a fun detour. Echoey, 80s style effects make for a sound something like Bon Iver presents the Phil Collins experience.
On top of it all, Bon Iver earns extra fanboy points for collaborating with Colin Stetson, a frequent friend of The Arcade Fire, and for appearing on the Colbert Report and Jimmy Fallon, the two best Late Night Shows on television. (Don't argue.) There's even a picture floating around online of Vernon with ?uestlove from The Roots. Hang it in the louvre I say, and fuck Da Vinci!
Bon Iver is good, so good that it left me hungry for more and frustrated with a runtime that's generally acceptable but feels much shorter than it is. Although Bon Iver doesn't surpass For Emma, history may tell us that it matches it. By no means does it suffer from sophmore slump or stagnation. It's a solid album that will endure the test of time, and that's more than enough to make a Vegas-based Wisconsinite proud.
Rating: 10/10
on 2011-05-16 dscanland Said:
I feel quite patriotic with Bon Iver releasing his first single off of his anticipated album. It's called "Calgary". Download it at his site with the small fee of of your email address: http://www.boniver.org/
Not Rated
