Bon Iver - Bon Iver

A quick disclaimer: I'm not anywhere near as big a nerd about Bon Iver as most fans appear to be. I don't even have the Blood Banks EP. I know, right? Still, I know what I like, and that's enough for me. Since the release of 2008's For Emma, Forever Ago the band have gone from strength to strength - the single 'Skinny Love' was covered by British female Birdy and enjoyed a sustained chart run; the band have worked on tracks for the Twilight movies; and the track 'Woods', along with the band's other services, were employed for last year's phenomenal Kanye West record.

Skip forward three years and all such successes can be undermined with the click of a button. On May 23 the successor to the album, eponymously titled Bon Iver, was accidentally released to purchase on iTunes - a mistake that has led to its widespread leak. At just under a month prior to its official release date this could of course seriously damage the potential for chart positions, but I'm sure few of the fanbase will mind.


The introduction in 'Perth' is much of the traditional Bon Iver we're used to - indeed the band have described this record as a "sequel" to For Emma (in a news story I now annoyingly cannot find, curse my poor work ethic) - and indeed slowly and gradually creeps up on you with almost hymnal emotion and robotic vocals that haunt ("still alive for you, love") between bouts of rousing drums and some brass sections that all build towards a triumphant return. 'Minnesota, WI' is the perfect bridge between classic and modern - for the most part a beautiful folk piece with harps, banjos and strings; suddenly breaking in the middle for some gritty drums and synthesisers that somehow make little intrusion in the overall structure of the track.

No such impurities on 'Holocene', one of the album's highlights on account of its sheer sangfroid. The marching drums return and add a layer of unorthodox pace to a track that is in its very essence contradictory to their own words ("and at once I knew I was not magnificent"). It's easy to lose yourself in the bliss here and the presence of a guitar in 'Towers' is a little bit of a surprise. There's a small part of me a bit miffed with how indulgent the lyrics are:

Build your tether rain-out from your fragments…
Break the sailor’s table on your sacrum…
Fuck the fiercest fables, I’m with Hagen

as if to sum up the entire hipster mentality of "I can say obscure, arty things but I'm still going to swear so I'm a bit cool". Might just be a problem with me, that one.

The real first sense of musical trickery is made apparent on 'Michicant' which is just an endless stream of swishing effects, bells and horns that underpin lyrics of Winter blues and a general sense of bleakness ("and the frost took up the eyes"... "it wasn't yet the Spring"). There's a strong sense of Sufjan Stevens emulation about 'Hinnom, TX' - particularly recent Sufjan - with its effervescent repetitions and saccharine bleeps. 'Wash.' is then an equally poignant track (for me) with an almost Philip Glass piano taking centre stage with mournful-sounding vocals - that particular comparison earning it my coveted "fave track!!" title.


There's a surprisingly conventional structure to 'Calgary' that seems to have divided opinion - even drawing a few dreaded Coldplay comparisons - but whilst there is indeed a typically soft-rock feel to it I don't think it suffers (but then I'm a big Coldplay fan so I would say that). The brief 'Lisbon, OH' is, dare I say, too brief and quiet to make an impact. Especially when given the final surprise of 'Beth / Rest', a staggeringly 80s power ballad that has drawn a lot of PHIL COLLINS! cries from heretics. Perhaps in a vain attempt to reclaim "uncool" as cool. For me it's a bit of a poor ending - stooping in a few too many pastiches for it to either be funny or pretty (imagine Wind Beneath My Wings following Time After Time following In The Air Tonight).

I eternally find it difficult to place the band because of the hysterical exaggeration of their talents that the core fanbases partake in, and my resulting hatred of such poseurs. Because whilst there is a great deal of beautiful, soulful, contemplative and surprising music on the record I cannot for the life of me find anything to thrust in others' faces with cries of "BEST RECORD OF THE YEAR!" and other such unfounded comments. There does appear to be a fear that, come the next Bon Iver album, this'll all be forgotten. I certainly wouldn't say it's as good as their debut album, but perhaps I've just worked myself up into a paranoid frenzy.

Rating: 7.5/10
Highlights: Wash., Holocene, Towers, Calgary, Michicant
Avoid: n/a... still not sold on Beth / Rest though.
Artwork Watch: The kind of really pretty artwork you'd see working class families buying cheaply at markets to try and give their house a bit of decoration (I should know, I'm one of them).