A Good Summer for Bon Iver

Fans of Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, may take a while to warm to Justin Vernon’s latest (sort of self-titled) release Bon Iver, Bon Iver. Vernon has more or less abandoned the folky, strumming charm of his first album; in this second album, the delicate balance of acoustic guitar and Vernon’s falsetto (think “Skinny Love”) have been thrown into a world full of sound. The prevailing metaphor would probably not a wall, but rather an ocean. Every song is enveloped by sound.

The closer “Beth/Rest” comes surprisingly close to sounding like ‘80s schlock—heavy synths and squeaky-clean guitar licks—but is reined in by the presence of Vernon’s careful singing. I’m hard pressed to call the album experimental; Vernon demonstrated a clear willingness to experiment with sound pre-Bon Iver—if in careful ways: playing with layered walls of his own voice (“The Wolves (Act I and II)”) and artful displays of hardcore Autotune use (“Woods”). It’s not that Bon Iver, Bon Iver represents Vernon’s more experimental side. It’s more like he’s being more playful, coyly suggesting that he’s far less of a folkie than we all imagined.

How to explain the newfound playfulness on this album? I’m always hesitant to apply genres to songs, but I fear it might help shed some light on my opinion. How do we deal with the opener “Perth” and the first minute or so of “Minnesota, WI”? My sense is that they represent Vernon dabbling with the sounds of post-rock in the vein of Explosions in the Sky. (But that would be a rather limiting classification; Explosions, of course, has no vocals and, more often than not, writes songs with more dynamism and “oomph” than your average Bon Iver tune.) “Holocene” recalls a the softer side of Viva La Vida-era Coldplay (“Reign of Love”). “Towers,” on the other hand, makes me think of Sun Kil Moon’s Mark Kozelek with its rolling guitar figure.

Comparisons, I must admit, are a rather feeble way at getting to one’s point in a review. The bottom-line is that you should not expect this album to be For Emma, 2.0 (I’m sure this sentiment has already been aired elsewhere). What you can expect, however, is a songwriter (and producer) on the cusp of finding his sound, piecing together odds and ends to make a(n almost) cohesive album. The first half of the album (“through “Michicant”) is not flawless, but it is nearly so. It is odd and wonderful and new. The second half is where Vernon hits a bit of a wall. “Hinnom, TX” is problematic, as is “Wash.” The single “Calgary,” however, revives the album and the closer “Beth/Rest,” despite its odd production, provides a satisfying end. Does the instrumental “Lisbon, OH” need to be there? Probably not, but I’ll give Vernon a pass on that one. Is it named “Lisbon, OH” just to add another “Town, State” song to his catalogue? Probably…but I’ll give him a pass on that as well.