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The most helpful favourable review
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
For Emma, Forever Ago
Like Dylan, Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver (it's a one-man show) understands that simple, acoustic-led arrangements married with lyrical depth can really pack a punch. Written during a self-imposed period of isolation in the Wisconsin woods after the break-up with his girlfriend and a serious illness, For Emma, Forever Ago is an achingly elegiac album and each track is an...
Published 6 months ago by K. Nicholls
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44 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
Man Sulks in Shed
Like a beautifully textured carpet but not as interesting. Short on melody, lyrically threadbare with some cod Beach Boys harmonising and rudimentary strumming. There are some obvious influences here (Bonny Prince Billy, Iron & Wine, Mercury Rev etc).
The Appalachian cabin and broken heart is a journalistic eye catcher; it certainly sounds more authentic...
Published 18 months ago by Papierre Batterbisby
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
For Emma, Forever Ago, 14 May 2009
Like Dylan, Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver (it's a one-man show) understands that simple, acoustic-led arrangements married with lyrical depth can really pack a punch. Written during a self-imposed period of isolation in the Wisconsin woods after the break-up with his girlfriend and a serious illness, For Emma, Forever Ago is an achingly elegiac album and each track is an emotionally-charged vignette. Listen to Skinny Love for a sample of Vernon's musings on the loneliness of losing love or The Wolves (Act 1 and II) for a taste of accusatory hurt: `someday my pain will mark you. Harness your blame'. Despite its soul-baring, For Emma... is a surprisingly uplifting journey and a reminder of the beauty one man and his guitar can create.
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59 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
Masterpiece., 14 Oct 2008
In a similar vein to Damien Rice's debut album O, For Emma, Forever Ago is currently spending its gestation time simmering below the radar of popular consciousness before it surely soars into the affections of many. Like Damien Rice before him, Justin Vernon (who in this case goes by the alias, Bon Iver) has created a record of such delicate, intimate beauty that you are left amazed by how it could leave you quite so drained.
Although many reading this will already be aware of the context of this record and how it was made, it is integral to the listening experience and so worth mentioning again - although in truth, the music and melodies alone will be enough for some (perhaps more so given the lyrics are slightly hard to distinguish without the booklet). Following the break-up of his band and a relationship frustrated by an ongoing illness, Vernon 'hibernated' and ensconced himself in a cabin in the Wisconsin wilderness. His self-imposed isolation surfaced feelings of loss, guilt and longing carried over the years. With no real intention of recording, the three month exile ended up being musically inspiring and led to the recording of nine polished tracks - though polished doesn't seem like the correct word. The record's raw, organic constitution is thanks largely to the fact that Vernon was unprepared to record and used only basic equipment he had with him at the time. Each track offers little more than acoustic guitars, occasional electric guitar licks and an inventive use of vocal layering and haunting vocal reverb effects.
The album opens strongly with Flume and you are immediately aware that you are experiencing something of particular note. Instantly, the album's striking sense of poignancy seems to flood out of Vernon's falsettos and harmonies. The song's passing lyric "Sky is womb / And she's the moon" leaves you wondering long into the next track. Like nearly all of Vernon's poetry, the subject is always kept at arms length. Each song's meaning is left twisted and hidden from view, reflective of Vernon's lonely, tortured circumstance. Lump Sum picks up the pace with its 4/4 intro - its seductive chorus having you mimic the "Or so the story goes" refrain before you realise.
Picking up tiny lyric segments and being attached to them is a real feature of the album - again largely due to its low fidelity recording. Skinny Love is reminiscent of Lennon circa Dear Prudence as Vernon's anguish bears itself in a series of searing exclamations: "Who will love you? / Who will fight? / Who will fall far behind?" With its own sense of momentum each track seems to provide the perfect platform for the next. The rousing finale of The Wolves (Act I and II) and its repetition "What might have been lost / What might have been lost / What might have been lost" vignettes Blindsided's palpable sense of unexpected love and expected heartbreak, beautifully.
Although this album challenges more than it resolves, there are moments of hope and love. For Emma, perhaps the album's only song to be composed in a major key, describes a playful dispute between lovers and is a relieving tonic to the album's sometimes claustrophobic sense of solitude. It ends with the well-timed: "With all your lies / You're still very loveable." The song's stirring use of brass instruments acts to soothe after some of the album's darker moments. The album's farewell is another mesmeric highlight. Its simple verse and chorus cycle could happily turn over another ten times, weaving and meandering before the stacked staccato delivery of the song's chorus leaves an indelible impression on even the most thick-skinned listener.
Like many of the classic albums, albums that seem to pass through decades while hardly ageing, it is as if every moment - from the nagging, buzzing guitar string heard during Flume to the appearance of a vocoder during The Wolves (Act I and II) - no matter how incongruous it may seem, becomes ultimately fundamental to the album's success. For Emma, Forever Ago is the product of a time spent alone; a period of immense self-realisation, introspection and reflection. Justin Vernon's catharsis has benefited everyone. Among its cold chill are moments of genuine beauty and the message that we are all capable of confronting our fears and loss. This is the first musical masterpiece of the new century.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A quiet masterpiece, 7 Jul 2009
This is one of those albums that various people had recommended to me and that I bought without having heard a track. I'm glad to say, it was a successful purchase.
It's rare that an album can affect ones mood to this sort of degree - it happened to me a while back when I came across Midlake's Van Occupanther - but every time I listen to it I become subdued and melancholic but in a rather wonderfully serene way. There's a beautifully forlorn air to every song and, even when he seems on the verge of "rocking out" a sadness pervades. In fact, it's hard to isolate what makes this such a successful album: it's pretty bleak, and there is also a general absence of strong melodies and identifiable lyrics, but somehow the power of the songwriting and the conviction of his delivery carry it through.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Albumn - highly recommend, 8 May 2009
This albumn is truely a great one. Some excellent, well written songs to really meaningful music. Def a classic for the collection that will be played again and again.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
So simplistic and beautiful, 7 May 2009
After hearing 'Skinny Love' a few times on the radio and checking out a couple other tracks on the Internet I decided it was time to buy this album. I was not disappointed! This album is a gorgeous bit of work, so simplistic in places but with great depth in the tracks. You can hear the care that was taken in the recording and mastering of this album, although I do find this album to be quieter than others. I can see why people may find this album 'samey' but for me this is not the case. I find his voice a pleasure to listen to especially when double tracked or in unison with a second voice. So many of the tracks build into a beautiful composition, it's hard to pick a favorite! I think the detail that has gone into the making of this album shines through and makes it an album to listen to again and again. Highly recommended you will not be disappointed.
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24 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
Notes From A Privileged Isolation, 25 Aug 2008
That Mr Vernon-Iver should have entitled one of the nine extraordinary
songs on this weirdly wonderful album 'Wolves (Act1 & Act2)' would alone
have been enough to have caught my attention had not our dear friends at
Amazon also kindly included it in their increasingly astute recommendations
for me.
Isolation is a privilege. Few of us, whether we chose to or not, have the
opportunity to be completely alone. The world will not let us unless we find
that rare opening to some small space where we might rehearse being
ourselves entirely. (Or failing that at least borrow a little time for self-reflection).
Far fewer still are those of us fortunate enough to own a father
with a hunting cabin in Wisconsin.
That said, 'For Emma, Forever Ago', shows evidence of an opportunity
well taken.
Isolation experienced wisely both refines and distorts perception and
there is more than a little madness present in these fine compositions.
There is also an elusive, ephemeral beauty.
The mood of the album is predominantly low-key and reflective in mood.
Mr Vernon's voice possesses a languid charm. Its' high register coaxing
a persuasive gravitas from his material.
'Flume' is worthy opening track but the haunting harmonies of 'Lump Sum'
sweep it away without our barely noticing.
"Skinny Love' is a wistful, almost-but-not-quite-jolly, ditty with a simple
sing-along chorus. The Wolf found himself joining in with the "my, my, mys"
despite himself.
Any song about my own species is bound to satisfy and 'Wolves (Act1 & Act2)'
is no exception. Simplicity and economy once again win the day. The harmonies
are splendid and the percussive intrusions at it's dark centre positively barmy.
'Blindsided' is a truly lovely song. Perhaps the album's highpoint. The subtle
use of brass enhancing the exceptionally well-wrought melodic line.
'Creature Fear' and 'Team' both make judicious use of the drumkit our hero
must have taken to the wilderness with him. ( I'm betting his Dad has got a truck
as well as a log cabin !).
The warm brass appears once again in 'For Emma' ( Things must have been getting
pretty crowded in there by this time !).
'Re : Stacks' is a fine ending to a fine project. Mr Vernon's guitar playing heard
here at it's economical best.
The Cold Good Winter seems to me to have been well spent.
Would that I could have been there with him for a while.
Recommended.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Bon Iver .Not lightly a masterpiece, 14 May 2008
It's not a very entertaining prospect is it?: Reflective singer-songwriter retreats to log cabin with guitars and rudimentary recording equipment, bemoaning his personal tragedies to write cathartic record.Only unremitting gloom can result right? Wrong. This album is quite simply the most life affirming piece of creativity you may ever hear. Not just because Justin Vernon managed to look up from his tears enough to even make a record. The quality I'm struggling to avoid a heap of cliches to describe is quite simply painful honesty. What washes over even the most cynical listener is the overwhelming feeling that this record would have been made to sell zero units.It's the quality I find in some of the best world music records and gigs.It goes straight from the musician to your heart without being filtered through more worldly concerns. A romantic idea maybe, but just like much music from unfamiliar cultures you hum along to happily, the lyrics of these songs also take some deciphering or some leaving be. In amongst examples like (possibly the most economically beautiful metaphor for looming depression even written,let alone sung)"There's a ...black crow sitting across from me,his wirey legs are crossed.He's dangling my keys, he even fakes a toss", and the painfully academic, yet infinitely bearable description of his soul's excavation of feelings as his Kumran (the place where the Dead Sea scrolls were unearthed(I googled it)There are personal codes and diary secrets revealed only to the author.Musical references are many, unexpected and entirely irrelevant. Why doesn't the whole lo-fi mess come over as a self-indulgent wallow.Honestly, I don't know. I've a generally cynical eye for musical artifice and, notwithstanding peoples taste, subjectivity and cultural circumstance, I can't imagine why at least some part of this record doesn't touch or deeply move anyone who hears it.This isn't quite 500 words but you should really stop reading this and listen to "For Emma forever ago" right now. I told all my friends to buy it without listening first. From the recording glitches, through to the tearfully mixed in drum tantrum through to the penultimate line of lyrics where he kind of explains what he's put us all through, it is a masterpiece. Don't for God's sake compare whatever he puts out next to this."This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization it's the sound of the unlocking and the lift away......."
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44 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
Man Sulks in Shed, 28 May 2008
Like a beautifully textured carpet but not as interesting. Short on melody, lyrically threadbare with some cod Beach Boys harmonising and rudimentary strumming. There are some obvious influences here (Bonny Prince Billy, Iron & Wine, Mercury Rev etc).
The Appalachian cabin and broken heart is a journalistic eye catcher; it certainly sounds more authentic than being chucked and sulking in a garden shed. But a lot of great albums germinate in solitude and are the result of emotional turmoil, so it's really nothing new.
One also wonders about the wisdom of a bear of a man singing in a keening multitracked falsetto as a way of recapturing a lost girlfriend. A bottle of chardonnay and a Barry White platter would probably have been far more effective.
The album is moderately good in parts - but not that original, and not that poetic (despite some clumsy obscurity). After 4 listens all the way through - it is pretty samey. It's doubtful the 2nd album will be received so rapturously.
The more fanatical fans and disciples should maybe get themselves a portastudio and have a go themselves. The deeper they delve - the less impressed they will be with this particular work.
On a positive note, and in a similar field, try "After The Gold Rush" - Neil Young (for an example of fantastically tuneful high pitch warbling), early Elliott Smith (for musical & lyrical invention) or most Nick Drake (the original man in a shed).
Despite the hype, I'd advise giving this a good long stint on the listening post before buying.
File under - sensitive mock olde timey cove with a beard; they are legion at the moment.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
I agree in the end, 7 May 2008
Uncut very rarely give out 5 star reviews, so on that basis Bon Iver's debut was something to go and search out. To be honest on first listen I didn't get past the vocal similarity to TV On The Radio (with that same echo of Peter Gabriel). On third and fourth listen I wasn't convinced that there was more than strumming and "pleasant" sounds here. But as is common with a few albums there comes a moment (and in hindsight you're never sure when it was) everything clicked into place, and yes indeed I agree this is worthy of all of those 5 stars.
These are not so much songs as soundscapes, put together like watercolours. Mostly white but with expertly crafted detail. The Uncut reviewer gave "Skinny Love" the only 4 star mark on the album, and I totally disagree, I love that track. If there was any of these to be marked down then it would be the opener "Flume" but that would be harsh.
If I have a criticism it is that with "Creature Fear" and "Team" being essentially two parts of the same track, there are actually only 8 songs and I feel slightly short changed. But that's only a minor gripe. There are too many "hairs standing up on the scalp" moments to really criticise.
An excellent debut and I look forward to more to come.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
good winter, 29 Mar 2008
We've all had that feeling; when things get on top of you and you wish you could escape somewhere and shut the world away. After the break up of his long time band DeYarmond Edison Justin Vernon removed himself to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin for four months over winter. He spent his days splitting wood and generally working the land and in this isolation and contemplation recorded the bulk of this extraordinary album.
Bon Iver is a corruption of the French for 'good winter' and the recording of this album has clearly been a cathartic experience for Vernon. It is filled with love, loss and emotion and with its starting point of a man alone with his thoughts and a guitar the album actually builds into something far larger. I mean this literally with the addition of extra vocals and instruments on tracks like Flume and For Emma but elsewhere, with the layering of his own voice Vernon creates a surprisingly full sound and with necessity the mother of invention the album contains some musical surprises too, this isn't just an album of folky guitar strumming.
On most tracks Vernon employs a falsetto but his range is much wider on tracks like Skinny Love. The Wolves (Acts I and II) has a soulful and, dare I say it, funky feel to the vocals as he repeats 'What might have been lost'. Blindsided begins with a single note repeated but from this he weaves layer upon layer of voice to create something surprisingly complex. Lyrically the album can be a little obtuse but on some tracks there is total clarity. Closing track re:stacks is a beautiful finish in which, despite my talk of catharsis, he sings ' This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization/It's the sound of the unlocking and the lift away/Your love will be/Safe with me'
So if you ever get that feeling I mentioned earlier and you can't get away to the country, take the phone off the hook, put this album on and enjoy, there isn't a weak track on it.
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