Way back in 2007, Justin Vernon’s For Ever, Forever Ago debut under the Bon Iver name stole the hearts of a raft of pre-Fleet Foxes beardy types. The album somehow existed outside the hype machine, and, spawned by heartbreak, is rightly talked about as a delicate, loner classic.
For that album, Vernon retreated to a lodge, in the snow which bedecked its sleeve photography. Bon Iver finds Vernon somewhere else entirely. In the interim, he’s set up other projects, and worked with Kanye West. That last point might not have been quite so surprising (folkie does hip-hop… wha??) if we’d heard what was to follow. Bon Iver is, above all, a glorious celebration of – and experimentation with – sound. From the first hushed minute of opener Perth (which soon lets rip), to the trio of vocal lines on, say, Minnesota WI, this is a luxurious record, with Vernon’s simple songs filtered and engorged at every turn.
Whether or not the pure 80s homage-on-sleeve, Beth/Rest, will ever sit comfortably among the other nine tracks remains to be seen – surely it’s too soon to be aping these sounds? But 90 per cent of Bon Iver is about music that moves the listener, and does so while moving the medium confidently forward. No mean feat.
