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Product Description
Intimate 4-tracker from 2009 of all-exclusive songs! Reverent harmonies 'n' refined folk from Wisconsin wonder Justin Vernon. Backed by "Beach Baby" ; "Babys" and "Woods".
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
New blood from Bon Iver gives tantalising glimpses about where this gifted artist could go next.
20 Jan 2009
Format:Audio CD
After an artist has had critically acclaimed and successful debut album the pressure is on them for the follow up. Will it be as good? Will it see them change what it was that made them flourish in the first place. Bon Iver,s Justin Vernon has got around the thorny problem of following up the brilliant For Emma Forever Ago by releasing a four track E.P. Bearing in mind that the material on Bloodank was recorded between December 2006 and January 2007 it doesn't represent a massive step forward but it does peel off on a couple of unexpected tantalising tangents.
The title track is the best song on here. A quite brilliant song with the superb vocals high in the mix over artfully strummed guitar chords till the brief refrain of "I know it well " where Venons voice becomes all hushed like he's imparting a painful secret .The feedback at the end is nice abrasive touch as well.
The brief "Beach Baby" is probably the song most redolent of Emma Forever but while it is , as ever, superbly sung it is the weakest track here. "Babys" is where it gets interesting in the sense of something dissimilar emerging .Built around a plonking one note piano chord with intervening bouts of shifty silence it ascends to something almost desperate. "Woods" has vocoded choral vocals overlapping in various keys to the again hazily frantic conclusion.
As an appendix to Emma Forever Bloodbank is well worth hearing .It offers the listener much of what they probably cherished about the album while giving tantalising and possibly surprising hints at just how far this gifted artist could go .
The title track is the best song on here. A quite brilliant song with the superb vocals high in the mix over artfully strummed guitar chords till the brief refrain of "I know it well " where Venons voice becomes all hushed like he's imparting a painful secret .The feedback at the end is nice abrasive touch as well.
The brief "Beach Baby" is probably the song most redolent of Emma Forever but while it is , as ever, superbly sung it is the weakest track here. "Babys" is where it gets interesting in the sense of something dissimilar emerging .Built around a plonking one note piano chord with intervening bouts of shifty silence it ascends to something almost desperate. "Woods" has vocoded choral vocals overlapping in various keys to the again hazily frantic conclusion.
As an appendix to Emma Forever Bloodbank is well worth hearing .It offers the listener much of what they probably cherished about the album while giving tantalising and possibly surprising hints at just how far this gifted artist could go .
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Vocoders: yes or no? The use of such synthesized vocals took a big dip in fashion between its Kraftwerk and ELO heyday and its minor resurgence under the auspices of so-called Chill Out acts such as Air and Bent. However, it is a sound probably most commonly associated these days with urban music - from R'n'B to Hip Hop and Garage - which is why 2008's favourite log-cabin dwelling folk experimentalist Bon Iver (aka Justin Vernon) seems an unlikely exponent of this divisive tool. His stunning album, 'For Emma, Forever Ago', was an intimate acoustic album with lo-fi electronic shadings, very rustic, not very bling. But it did use Auto-Tune to thicken and add impressionistic bite to his vocals on some tracks, albeit fairly sparingly - quite unusually for a folk artist (though I anticipate someone contradicting me here). 'In the Woods', one track on his new, stop gap EP 'Blood Bank', is a kind of Auto-Tune a capella, a layer cake of soulful, heavily synthesized - but thematically bucolic - harmonies. It will sound one of two ways, depending on how disposed you are to such textures: either like Craig David ad libbing on a country walk or the work of a bold musical maverick (i.e., not Craig David ad libbing on a country walk). I haven't decided yet.
Setting 'In the Woods' aside, 'Blood Bank' is a low-key four track release, presumably to keep appetites whetted for Vernon's next full-length. The vocals on the eponymous track are throatier, huskier than we're accustomed to from him, with a pleasing hook adding levity to murky production which is finally subsumed in a fog of Jim O'Rourke-esque distortion. 'Beach Baby' is the lilting falsetto ballad that perhaps Vernon is eager to avoid becoming expected to write (lovely though it is) featuring a deliciously offbeat country twang with a Hawaiian accent. Think of Wilco's underrated 'Sky Blue Sky' for clues. The more expansive, experimental 'Babys' drifts on a Philip Glass-esque piano refrain, but doesn't quite engage in the ways it promises to. An interim release rather than a taster of things to come, 'Blood Bank' will satisfy the already won-over - Vocoders and all - but may not convince the unconverted.
Setting 'In the Woods' aside, 'Blood Bank' is a low-key four track release, presumably to keep appetites whetted for Vernon's next full-length. The vocals on the eponymous track are throatier, huskier than we're accustomed to from him, with a pleasing hook adding levity to murky production which is finally subsumed in a fog of Jim O'Rourke-esque distortion. 'Beach Baby' is the lilting falsetto ballad that perhaps Vernon is eager to avoid becoming expected to write (lovely though it is) featuring a deliciously offbeat country twang with a Hawaiian accent. Think of Wilco's underrated 'Sky Blue Sky' for clues. The more expansive, experimental 'Babys' drifts on a Philip Glass-esque piano refrain, but doesn't quite engage in the ways it promises to. An interim release rather than a taster of things to come, 'Blood Bank' will satisfy the already won-over - Vocoders and all - but may not convince the unconverted.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Bon Iver has produced a nice little filler for those of us avidly awaiting his next album. Blood bank offers 4 new songs, each quite different. 'Blood bank' could have fitted nicely on the last album, a gentle reverby acoustic number which builds beautifully through the song. 'Beach baby' is a quiet, lightly strummed ode, sung in his high falsetto. 'Babys', recalls Steve Reich/Sufjan Stevens, with simple repetitive figures on piano - a mood piece, with vocals introduced half-way through - sublime. 'Woods' is less interesting perhaps, a beach boys like song sung through synthesisers.
All in all, for the 1st and 3rd songs alone, this is a worthy addition for fans. Bring on the next album!
All in all, for the 1st and 3rd songs alone, this is a worthy addition for fans. Bring on the next album!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant Mini Album
Rated with 4 stars rather then the full 5 due to track 4 'Woods' which is a shock to the system after the first 3 songs. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Ellen T
Spine-tingling
For me, better than both Bon Iver albums. Nary a wrong turn on this EP and Blood Bank itself is Justin at his most stark, wintery yet affecting. Read more
Published 9 months ago by The Somerset Liberation Front
Lovely
A great album by Bon Iver, every one of the tracks on the album is great, I never get tired of his music. My personal favourite I've got to say is "Woods", it's quite unique.
Published 14 months ago by Linnea
Blood bank teasing me for more...
First off - I am one of those who absolutely loved For Emma... in that it hit me right in the chest and didn't let go. Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2010 by Mr. P. J. Schofield
Quality EP well worth holding on to.
One of the most lauded albums in State's 2008 poll, For Emma... left many a mouth salivating for more of Justin Vernon's music. Read more
Published on 23 Jan 2010 by Beasley
Blood bank cd - excellent value for money
Great music, gear value for money. I bought it as a gift and it was much appreciated. I would recomment to friends.
Published on 30 Dec 2009 by Ms. Daniela Taffine
more loveliness from Bon Iver
Four new tracks, four new gems. A nice move forward from the album For Emma, yet still one can trace the lineage. Read more
Published on 13 April 2009 by Mr. M. L. Hawes
Seductive
While Bon Iver's debut album won a lot of plaudits, I was never massively taken with it.
However, I was blown away when I heard the title track from this EP. Read more
However, I was blown away when I heard the title track from this EP. Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2009 by Ian Shine
Room To Bloom
Bon Iver's Blood Bank provides a four-track attempt to stave off difficult-second-album syndrome, and in doing so has allowed for an experimental outlet to either showcase his new... Read more
Published on 26 Jan 2009 by Gannon
A little slice of Bon Iver heaven
Since his magnificent debut last year I have been devouring every bit of Bon Iver music I can find, so some brand new material (even if it is just 4 songs) is an absolute... Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2009 by Mrs. S. D. Harbottle
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