Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
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CD Details
Artist: Bon IverBrand: Baker & Taylor
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-02-19
Music Label: Jagjaguwar
Soundtracks:
- Flume
- Lump Sum
- Skinny Love
- The Wolves (Act I and II)
- Blindsided
- Creature Fear
- Team
- For Emma
- Re: Stacks
Music reviews of For Emma, Forever Ago
Music Review: If this isn't the best CD of 2008, what is?
Rating: 5 Stars
The creation story is already a legend.
As winter descended, Justin Vernon moved to his father's cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin. He was "60 miles away from anyone I love, sometimes more like 1500." But he was "about 18 feet away from everything I love" --- a pile of old guitars, a mound of microphones, wires, chords, electric boxes. For several months, he dug in, chopping wood, thinking, writing, playing, recording. When he emerged, he had nine songs, about 35 minutes of music.
He smartly added a bit of production here, some backup there, and let the music breathe. Overnight, a cult formed. Now he and his two-man band are known as Bon Iver --- a play on the French for "good winter" --- and his debut CD is on all the best iPods.
The creation story hasn't hurt. But this is one time an ascent is almost totally because of the musical achievement. Here's Vernon's take:
"It's been painted in the reviews of the record as this magical four months of hunkering down and writing a record. In reality I headed out to the cabin because I just didn't know what to do next in my life. Once I got there though it just felt like all the blocks that I had put in my brain and heart in terms of musical expression started to loosen. They had been there for so long and the only thing that was able to loosen them up, and loosen me up, was having that much space...."
Space, as it turns out, is the glory of "For Emma". The lyrics are sparse and enigmatic --- the opening lines of the CD are "I am my mother's only one/It's enough" --- and sometimes they're more sounds than words. The music will strike prissy listeners as mere strumming. If there's a clear gift here, it's Vernon's voice --- he can go falsetto so fast and true that even Neil Young has to bow.
The triumph lies in Vernon's ability to bring you to the very gates of mystery. He not only explores inner space, he creates it. You'll experience open fields, open hearts, what Vernon calls in one song "the sound of the unlocking and the lift away". In its small size lies its vast power. And more: It makes you feel peaceful. And hopeful in the way that you sometimes feel hope at the far side of tears.
"For Emma" is gossamer --- you may not remember how most of these songs go.
But be warned: It imprints. Very, very deeply.
Description of For Emma, Forever Ago
Justin Vernon began recording as Bon Iver following the breakup of DeYarmond Edison, an indie folk group similar in tone and manner to Iron & Wine, Little Wings and, to a certain extent, Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Pronounced 'bohn eevair', it is French for "good winter" which is spelled wrong deliberately. This debut CD is centered around Justin Vernon, who is the primary force behind Bon Iver, as he moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter, alone for three months. From this solitary time emerged a bold, uninhibited new musical focus of all his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss, and guilt that had been stockpiled over the past six years into songs. The NY Times called this record "irresistible", and it was given a "Recommended" rating by Pitchfork. 9 tracks. Jagjaguwar Records. 2008.It's hard to believe that For Emma, Forever Ago is the work of one man. But when Justin Vernon's old band split he hauled himself (and presumably plenty of instruments and recording equipment) to his dad's hunting cabin in the woods of Wisconsin for the coldest season and worked through his issues in musical form. (The name comes from the French for "good winter"--"bon hiver"). By the start of the spring thaw he had recorded the bulk of this stunning debut, originally self-issued to acclaim last year in the USA and now picked up for a British release. Vernon's voice grabs the ear from the start, switching easily into a smooth falsetto (and unusually for a white indie lad, without the slightest intent of emulating Prince). The formula is straightforward. He layers his vocal harmonies, while a gently strummed acoustic rhythm guitar just about holds the centre. All else from horns to slide guitar is mere detail. The quality is rough and ready but the effect is strangely similar though to the slick vocal confections of European women like Bjork and Camille, all mystery and distance. It's the musical equivalent of reading someone else's diary. In code. Through a dirty window. Enigmatic songs like the elegantly stumbling "Creature Fear" with its rowdy horn parts, the resolute opener "Flume" and the evanescent "Team" are just so pretty they seem to glide by without leaving a mark in the snow. Vernon is apparently a straightforward and friendly guy, but For Emma, Forever Ago genuinely sounds like something from a far off place. --Steve Jelbert
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