You don’t know how to tell
I may have said this before, but I really didn’t get the hyperbole and hype that surrounded Bon Iver’s debut full-length, “For Emma, Forever Ago.”
“Skinny Love” is a terrific song, one of the best of the year. I won’t argue that point, but the rest of the album doesn’t come anywhere near its level as a whole. Frankly, I find it to be mostly boring. It’s a nice mood piece, but it falls significantly short of being a revelatory piece of songwriting. There’s definitely an element of the album’s backstory overshadowing its presence in the now.
I also can’t speak too glowingly about most of the tracks on the stop-gap follow-up EP, Blood Bank. I appreciate the fact he’s looking for some variety of instrumentation now as I think it’s needed, but I definitely don’t think the future of his career is in doing an Imogen Heap impression (sort-of ludicrous closer “Woods”).
The title track of course is absolutely an exception. On a level even higher than “Skinny Love,” “Blood Bank” is a majestic, moody, haunting piece of music that begs to be repeated again and again. The press materials have it right: it’s the warm light at the end of For Emma’s cold, dark tunnel. It shines deep down to the cockles of your heart and if every song he wrote was this good then he’d be as good as everyone seems to think he is.
Both releases can be purchased physically from the outstanding Jagjaguwar in every format, including digital. Just say no to iTunes whenever you can.
