Bon Iver, Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Bon Iver's classic indie-folk fall album that puts into music the importance of the people and the places in life.
Setting the Scene:
As the leaves change colors in the fall, I always find myself gravitating towards Indie music. During this time of the year I’ll throw on Fleet Foxes, Peter Cat Recording Co., and Phoebe Bridgers, to name a few of my favorites. But the band, in this genre, that I’ve come back to constantly for nearly two decades is Bon Iver.
Bon Iver was founded by frontman Justin Vernon in 2006. Initially, the band was intended to be a solo act, but grew to include Sean Carey (drums, keyboards, vocals), Michael Lewis (vocals, baritone guitar, guitar, violin, saxophone), Matthew McCaughan (drums, bass, vocals), Andrew Fitzpatrick (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Jenn Wasner (guitar, keyboards, vocals). Justin Vernon had previously been a part of the band DeYarmond Edison, but that group disbanded due to creative differences and personal reasons. During the dissolution, Vernon was also going through a breakup and became extremely ill with mononucleosis, also known as glandular fever. Given the circumstances, Vernon decided to isolate himself in his father’s cabin in Wisconsin. While secluded, he had planned to only recover physically and mentally, but over time music became a part of that process. The tracks that were created during this time would go on to become Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago. The soft indie-folk album received critical praise for its ability to package the sound of isolation and powerful simplicity into a satisfying album. By the end of the year, multiple music publications named Bon Iver’s debut among the top 10 albums of 2008 and some even placed it in the number one spot.
Following the success of For Emma, Forever Ago, TV shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, Chuck, Skins, and House used songs from Bon Iver’s debut album, further spreading its audience. Bon Iver collaborated with St. Vincent for the New Moon soundtrack and Kanye West for the track “Lost in the World” on his 2010 album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. With exposure from the success of For Emme, Forever Ago, collaborations with artists, and other forms of media, the anticipation for Bon Iver’s next album was high. In the years since the debut of Bon Iver as a solo act, Justin Vernon had built out Bon Iver to become a band. On June 17, 2011, Bon Iver released their second studio album, and first as a group, Bon Iver, Bon Iver.
Personal Thoughts:
I don’t remember the first time I heard a Bon Iver song, but I know it was through one of the TV shows that was previously mentioned. What I do remember though, is the feeling I got from the very beginning, a sense of warmth. On Bon Iver, Bon Iver, this warmth is present throughout the whole album. Every guitar strum has a depth that resonates through your body. At the beginning of “Perth” there are some ambient noises for the first few seconds of the track, but once the guitar kicks in the track gains momentum and swells into comforting indie-folk riffs. Guitar grounds the whole album, but Justin Vernon’s voice gives it an ethereal quality. Alternating between falsettos and low choruses, Vernon shows off his vocal chops to add texture to every song. Along with the details of the each track, what ties the album together is the theme of every song being named after a place. Vernon stated that the intention behind this was to represent how places are tied to memories.
Typically, when a guitar is used, it serves as a lead instrumental section or as an accompaniment that works in tandem with the melody. On the third track of Bon Iver, Bon Iver, “Holocene”, the guitar functions as the rhythm section. Percussion is often described as the heartbeat of a song. It is the part the people clap along to, the beats they dance on, the part that is felt through the whole body. By making the guitar act as the rhythm section, Bon Iver achieves the feeling of warmth that is often used to describe their music. The guitars are recorded in a way that they are given room to ring and set the count for the entirety of the song. In the pre-chorus of “Holocene” the guitar keeps a steady count but takes a backseat to the lyrics:
“And at once, I knew
I was not magnificent”
As soon as the pre-chorus ends, a guitar note punches into the song like a bass drum on the drop. The note rings out and drives the song forward like a rock song, but because it is an acoustic guitar, the note is much more gentle and maintains the vibe of a shimmering indie-folk song.
Justin Vernon’s voice is probably the most recognizable part of Bon Iver’s music as a whole. Not just in how it sounds, but in the way that it is layered and fluctuates between so many ranges. This layering is subtle, but effective because it fills out the tracks. In “Towers,” the majority of the song is sung in Vernon’s signature falsetto with some layering of his voice underneath. You can hear this in the start of the second verse when he sings:
“From the faun forever gone
In the towers of your honeycomb”
There is a spread of voices like what you would hear through chords on a piano. Until the bridge of the song, all of the vocal layers are close together in tone, but when the bridge comes in there is a lower vocal section that Vernon is layering in during these lines:
“Build your tether rain-out from your fragments
Break the sailor’s table on your sacrum”
Along with the lower guitar line, this lower vocal layer helps to distinguish the bridge and brings together the song. By using the lower layer sparingly, it has a major impact when utilized.
On Bon Iver, Bon Iver, the lyrics are sometimes too abstract or personal to fully understand. On the one hand, this makes tracks easier to relate to, as listeners can find personal meaning in their interpretation of the lyrics. On the other hand, it can make the songs and the albums they are part of feel messy and disjointed. To counter the second half of this, Bon Iver uses the names of the songs to orient and structure the album. Every song on the album is named after a place and these titles give the tracks inherent meaning. For example, the opening track, “Perth,” is named after the city Perth, Australia. In 2008, Justin Vernon was working with director, Matt Amato, whose best friend, the acclaimed actor, Heath Ledger, passed away while Vernon and Amato were spending three days together working on a music video. Stuck together by circumstance for the next two days, Amato reminisced to Vernon about stories of Ledger riding horses in his hometown of Perth. This sparked the songwriting for Bon Iver, Bon Iver and Vernon decided to capture the places where stories had been told and the people that inhabited them.
Music, and albums by extension, are similar to movies. There are lots of great ones out there, but sometimes you run into them at just the right time, and they are all the better for it. In the same way A Nightmare on Elm Street is perfect for Halloween or Home Alone has become a Christmas tradition, Bon Iver, Bon Iver embodies everything that makes autumn, autumn. In the melancholy of each song you can hear leaves rustling and feel a calm wind blowing on your ears. If you are looking for your fall soundtrack please give Bon Iver, Bon Iver a listen on your next walk or commute.
Thanks for reading my recommendation of Bon Iver’s album about the importance of places in time and the people that lived within them, ourselves included. I hope this gave you a taste of what the album has to offer and entices you to listen to more if you haven’t already. Check out some of the album with three of my favorite tracks in the next section, and let me know your thoughts about the album in the poll and comments below. If you’ve enjoyed this write-up, subscribe for more album recommendations.