Back in 2006, Justin Vernon was recording music in his family’s cabin in Wisconsin as an escape from the painful realities of sickness and breakups. Out of this pain in 2007, came the emergence of Bon Iver and the unexpected success of For Emma, Forever Ago. This notoriety lead Vernon to collaborations with music moguls such as Kayne West on Monster, but before this year we’ve been awaiting new material until we got the word back in March that the band was coming out with a new self titled album. The long wait ended in June and was it worth it.
Bon Iver doesn’t take long to engage the listener with starting with a steady drum beat to build up the anticipation of Vernon’s voice in Perth. Once the first lyrics are echoed out, the raw emotion and elaborate use of a variety of instruments follow up where the band’s previous album left off. The essence of pain and painful reminiscence is still portrayed in the Vernon’s voice, but the band beautifully manipulates this potentially dark situation into a heavenly experience that has one escaping to all the positive aspects of any hurtful relationship to realize why it had an impact on Vernon’s life in such a vivid way. Every song is orchestrated to appeal to different emotions or perceptions, which makes it almost impossible to pause the album and makes one (even myself) take time out of their day to escape to this portrait that is painted by Vernon’s words. Additionally, the bands two music videos take the watcher on two abbreviated journeys through landscapes that match the images that one perceives while listening to Bon Iver. Hence why I believe that Vernon’s latest masterpiece can be appreciated by any avid music listener, due to the realism and purity that is a rarity in today’s music industry, but is found through every track of the album, which ultimately makes this my favorite album of 2011.