Bon Iver

[wmgaretjax]

Dig it.

Has an album out called "For Emma, Forever Ago."

It's nice, reminiscent of Iron and Wine, but it feels more authentic to me. The harmonies are beautiful. I normally hate this kind of music, for the record.

[TomAz]

[wmgaretjax]

yeah.

[matsuolost]

yeah bon iver is good

[guedita]

His new album is due out in June and Greg Leisz and Colin Stetson contributed. I'm very excited.

[MissingPerson]

Looking forward to it. I resisted the last one for too long.

[tessalasset]

Wow I love this thread. I never would have taken Jared for a Bon Iver fan. Way to be ahead of the curve as usual. Took me almost a year more before I got into him.

I'm nervous about this new album. Not a big fan of Volcano Choir or Gayngs. I have a feeling this album isn't going to be like his last at all.

[Fig Neutron]

I'm hoping Justin got his ya-yas out with Volcano Choir and Gayngs and the new stuff is at least in the same vein as For Emma and the EP.

[bmack86]

Well those projects were collaborations (did he even have any creative input with Gayngs?) Volcano Choir retained some of his sound, but both of those sounded more to me like someone adapting his style to work with artists who had clear visions of what they wanted to create.

[tessalasset]

I think my worries come from those two collaborations, and this article I read the other day:

Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon is readying the follow up to the 2007 debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, for release in June.

Kanye West’s favourite auto-tuned folk singer told Rolling Stone that the ten track album will open with a track titled Perth, which was inspired by a “rejuvenating experience” Vernon had while on tour in Australia. According to Rolling Stone the song features “a marching drum beat, a childrens’ choir and wailing guitars” and “sounds a lot like birth”.

Other songs on the record include Minnesota Wisconsin with finger-picked guitars, double bass drums and distorted bass saxophone, which Vernon describes as “a Civil War-sounding heavy metal song… sort of chaotic, dense, jarring” and a horn-heavy album closer titled Beth/Rest which Vernon claims is “definitely the part where you pick up your joint and re-light it.”

Vernon famously wrote For Emma while holed up by himself in the wilderness, but claims that he struggled to write the follow up album – “Somewhere along the line, I forgot how to write songs. I couldn’t do it anymore with a guitar. It wasn’t happening.”

So, perhaps inspired by the collaborative efforts on Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy of his membership in the 23 piece band*Gayngs*, Vernon says he “brought in a lot of people to change my voice — not my singing voice, but my role as the author of this band, this project… I built the record myself, but I allowed those people to come in and change the scene.”

Guests on the album include saxophonist Colin Stetson, who has played with Tom Waits and Arcade Fire and who visited Australia last year as part of the Vivid LIVE festival, and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz (Wilco, Joni Mitchell).

http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/news/...h-on-new-album

[Stickjohn]

(Justin Vernon) says it was liberating to recognize his own limitations and move on. “I always had a dream to be that sort of student of Neil Young, one of those people who can sit down and write a song and have it be this full statement and sound good,” he says. “I just don’t think I’m as good at it as those people, frankly, and over the last few years, I’ve adapted.”

Rolling Stone

[tessalasset]

So all my fears were quelled in an instant. Fucking gorgeous album. Seriously the only song I can't get into is Beth / Rest.

[TommyboyUNM]

So all my fears were quelled in an instant. Fucking gorgeous album. Seriously the only song I can't get into is Beth / Rest.

I'm with you. This song sounds like it would be played at every prom in the world in the 80's.

[tessalasset]

As soon as it comes on I just start from the beginning.

[wmgaretjax]

this is good stuff. Volcano Choir is still my favorite thing he's done, but I'm digging this one.

[tessalasset]

I'm with you. This song sounds like it would be played at every prom in the world in the 80's.

Altho I gotta say - I hated Creature Fear for the longest time. It wasn't until I dreamed about the song that it really clicked with me. So I'm not gonna completely give up on Beth.

[pancakespancakes]

I think this album is great for the same reasons his live show (at least when I saw it) was great. I'm pretty keen on these big arrangements.

[bballarl]

Yep, it is really good.

[pancakespancakes]

The last song is definitely doin it for me.

[beeerplease]

Where can I listen?!

[zircona1]

He's boring and makes me angry. That is all.

[PJandBompton]

He's boring and makes me angry. That is all.

you live in Columbia, though.

[apostle2]

I'm so glad I went out on a limb and got tickets for one of the shows in August even though it's three hours away. This is really, really good.

[cutterbutter]

I'm so glad I went out on a limb and got tickets for one of the shows in August even though it's three hours away. This is really, really good.

On that note, where are my CA dates??

[tessalasset]

Or even Arizona. I am willing to drive. I will be going to at least the LA and SD shows if not more.

[faxman75]

I'm with you. This song sounds like it would be played at every prom in the world in the 80's.

Definitely 80's. I was thinking Chariots of Fire at first. SLOW DANCE. Great album so far, i'm on my first listen.

[bmack86]

Stereogum's review

[MissingPerson]

Wash is gorgeous. Beth / Rest makes me queasy.

[bballarl]

In a good way? I think it's a fucking awesome jam.

[MissingPerson]

Nah. It's autoskipping fodder for me, I'm afraid.