GENRE | CABINCORE
VERDICT | FOR EVERYONE, EXACTLY WHEN THEY NEED IT
LABEL | JAGJAGUWAR
RELEASE | 6.21.11
BONIVER.ORG
Full disclosure: For Emma, Forever Ago is an album that got me through my first heartbreak and the death of a loved one. It’s one of the most cathartic works in the indie canon for the profound stanzas and deceptively simple song structures of Justin Vernon. The follow-up to For Emma was a lukewarm EP (Blood Bank) that brought about a Kanye West collaboration and inevitable break into the mainstream. Now, everyone’s bawled at least once through a listen of “Skinny Love” and the Wisconsinites are appearing on Letterman, so Bon Iver is under an immense amount of pressure to upstage everything the group’s done yet.
Thankfully, it delivers. Gorgeous, haunting progressions illuminate keyboards (“Wash.”), effortlessly entwined harmonies (“Michicant”) and an inventive electronic component that succeeds where the autotune left more to be desired on Blood Bank (“Calgary”). For Emma will mean more to me than words can say, but Bon Iver easily stands up to its prowess.
Bon Iver -- Wash. by Fluid Radio
Michicant -- Bon Iver by user9900015
