Album review: 'Bon Iver, Bon Iver'
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Bon Iver’s 2008 debut, “For Emma, Forever Ago,” punctuated a new era of male sensitivity, indie-rock division. Like Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold and Iron and Wine’s Sam Beam, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon connected with the type of earnest, low-key songs that James Taylor once would’ve strummed around the campfire to a gaggle of adoring hippies. Since then Vernon has become something of a mystique-laden cult star – the guy who retreated into the wilderness after breaking up with his band and his girlfriend, made an album full of ghosts and heavenly, broken harmonies that sold more than 300,000 copies, and then got a call to jam with Kanye West in Hawaii.
On the follow-up, “Bon Iver, Bon Iver” (Jagjaguwar), Vernon opens up a bit; instead of holing up by himself with a guitar and laptop, he surrounds himself with musicians. The sound is a good deal plusher, the arrangements thickened with pedal steel, saxophone, horns, percussion. But Vernon still sounds like he’s back in that Wisconsin cabin that birthed “Emma.” His falsetto is the album’s central instrument – sometimes starkly alone, sometimes layered into a cosmic choir, occasionally twisted into an otherworldly, Auto-Tuned wobble.
Horns spiral and thundering drums split open the eulogy “Perth.” “Minnesota, WI” flirts with a reggae rhythm, then pits flutes against banjo. These orchestrations give the songs the feel of movies, evoking the locales suggested in the titles and the memories that come with them. But the album’s middle sags with drifting arrangements and it concludes with a dud: the cheesy, reverb-laden ‘80s pop of “Beth/Rest.”
Vernon gets it right on “Calgary,” though: A song that takes the hushed, hymn-like tone of “For Emma, Forever Ago” and builds it into a tower of yearning. Call it soul music for shut-ins.
greg@gregkot.com
This is a miserable review, neglecting the most powerful and accesible song of the album: "Towers" and cutting the album short. At least 3 stars warranted, even if it is not as strong as Bon Iver's first go round.
Posted by: Matt G | June 18, 2011 at 08:29 PM
Beth/Rest cheesy. Hahaha. Wake up. Beth/Rest just started a movement.
Posted by: Zach B | June 21, 2011 at 03:27 AM
Wow. You really missed it on this one, Mr. Kot.
Posted by: Andrew May | June 22, 2011 at 09:55 AM
He should have just released a single of "Calgary", that song is great. I think this is a classic case of the sophomore slump.
That last track, Beth/Rest, was that a Bob Seger/Phil Collins/Coldplay collaboration or what?! It sounds like a slowed down version of Against The Wind mixed with any Coldplay song but Phil Collinsed up to make it sound more serious.
This man is at his best when he's a minimalist, all of this overproduction and texture and layers... it doesn't really work for this one.
Adam
Posted by: Adam | June 22, 2011 at 04:53 PM
WBEZ has dug their heels in on Bon Iver. I heard Kot's Sound Opinion piece on BI/BI, and was stunned with their slam fest on it.
Too bad. I love it, and think their concert was one of the best I'd seen in a long while, probably since Jonsi.
Posted by: Darnell | July 29, 2011 at 12:31 PM
It's the best thing I've heard in a long time. Like all my favorites, it look four or five listens to start to get it.
Posted by: Tony DeSare | August 13, 2011 at 11:50 PM