[VINYL] Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Fuck man, who hurt you Justin Vernon? Oh, right, Emma.
After the break up of his band, the ending of a relationship and a bout with illness, Justin Vernon headed in to the hills to a remote cabin in the wilderness of Wisconsin to help with his recovery and for a spot of soul searching. A romantic concept to say the least.
I don’t want to say too much about the album as I think even my mum has heard of Bon Iver (just after she dropped the revelation of ‘liking’ Biffy Clyro). After releasing the album on indie label Jagjaguwar and after producing the album on his lonesome, things just seemed to exploded and before you knew it, every man had a soft spot for the dude in a checkered shirt, sat in the woods.
It’s a sterling debut, especially when this could have been never heard as the record was created as a means of emotional cleansing for Vernon and it was only the little push from his friends that made him take it that step further.
For Emma, Forever Ago is an ethereal piece; it’s hollow in places (see “Blindsided” and “Stacks”) but also completely surrounding with instrumental loops and vocals which come in and build up the real important moments (“Creature Fear”). It’s a sensitive album which radiates beauty but in a perhaps negative twist on my part, I think that it’s possibly set the bar too high for any sort of follow up, but that’s something we’ll just have to wait and see.
Label - Jagjaguwar/4AD
Release Date - May 12th 2008 (UK)
Track List
1. Flume
2. Lump Sum
3. Skinny Love
4. The Wolves (Act I and II)
5. Blindsided
6. Creature Fear
7. Team
8. For Emma
9. re: Stacks
