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March 29, 2024

Bon Iver’s new album evokes a wintery feel

By NIKITA SHTARKMAN | November 17, 2016

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ANGELA N./cc-by-2.0 Justin Vernon of Bon Iver blends folk and electronica in latest album.

Wikipedia classifies Bon Iver’s newest album, 22, A Million, as Folktronica. That is one way to describe it I guess. I think calling it Bon Iver’s Yeezus is a more comprehensive portrayal. The cover of the album itself should reveal the reductionist, modernist step that lead singer Justin Vernon takes on this project, infusing his folk roots with a new, exciting electronic backing. The tracklist supports this view. It looks like an e. e. Cummings poem infested with inexplicable numbers and figures.

This album is full of some of the most unique and interesting instrumentals of the past few years. There is a perfect blend between two absolutely disparate genres: the organic, naturalness of folk and the uniqueness, vibrancy and unexpectedness of contemporary electronic production. The synths hop around the scale, trills sprinkle in intervals and the drums slap in strange, synthetic rhythm, but through all this, there is this undercurrent of tradition and timelessness.

“22 (OVER S∞∞N),” the opener, is founded on a classic, light Bon Iver melody. There are the trappings of a normal folk song, with the nimble strumming of a banjo, sweet touches of piano and a quiet string section. These mainstays of folk music are disturbed by a monotonous, repetitive synth tone that pokes and prods between pauses in the instrumentation. Its constant ringing is a testament to the innovation and unexpectedness that will unfold across the rest of the project.

Justin Vernon gives an incredible performance across the sparse and difficult production. His voice is as ethereal as before, light like the graze of the first leaf of fall. While the instrumentation is very impressive, Vernon’s voice is nonetheless the star of this project. His falsetto goes through several evolutions across songs. Vocoders and distortion are plastered over his melodies and choruses, texturing the soundscape.

The song “715 - CRΣΣKS” is the best showcase. It’s a song layering several of Vernon’s stacked melodies on top of each other using a Messina, a device that can split a single voice into harmonics. The interplay between the voices turns this into more than just a sad, poetic piece contemplating loss of faith and love: It becomes an eerie and threatening, but simultaneously sublime electronic piece. The distortion across the emptiness of silence creates an intimate, unique atmosphere.

On “8 (circle),” Justin Vernon sings with an unaltered voice over the most fleshed-out, most folksy instrumental on the album. It is one of the few classic Bon Iver songs on this album — a quiet, rolling melody that slides from a repetition of the base motif to a heavenly, elevated choral conclusion. But even on this natural-sounding song, there are little glitches, electronic distortions sprinkled behind and beneath the band’s performance and the choral harmonies.

“___45____” stands out because Vernon lowers his register from his James Blake-ean falsetto to something closer to a tenor. His voice is natural, earthy and sweet. The weird warbling accordion-like electronic instrument that billows beneath Vernon’s proclamations of “I’ve been caught in fire” and “I’ve been carved in fire” somehow only accentuates the organic theme. The start of an actual banjo only further grounds the album in dirt and trees.

The length of this album is perfect. The 34:10 run time allows Bon Iver to explore and flesh out some ideas, while never letting any part get overdone or boring. This is a dynamic, engaging listen. It is also a quiet, delicate album. The songs are understated, sweet and soulful. The sparsity of the soundscape is part of its character.

Each sound, each trill of his voice, each tinkle of the synth is important to the general piece. There is no space wasted. The silences are strategic, beautiful and thoughtful.

This album is about man and machine, nature and technology, progress and tradition. Bon Iver, one of the popular culture holdouts of traditional, pure folk music, develops a soundscape recalling robotic heaven, a mechanical sublimity. While he doesn’t solve the everlasting conflict between the modern and the traditional through this short, 10-track project, Vernon shows how they can coexist in a heavenly, ethereal beauty.

I highly recommend anyone interested in great vocal performances, alternative music, folk music and even electronic music to check this project out. It is a major success across all of those genre and just a generally beautiful piece. It will make you feel nostalgia and longing, sadness and melancholy, feelings perfect for the onset of fall and the rapidly approaching winter.


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