Bon Iver- Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Those fans of Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago who find themselves confused by his new album should bear in mind that Justin Vernon didn't really plan for any of this to happen. Bon Iver was likely intended as a one-off fluke to purge some feelings Vernon had as a result of the break-up of a band and a relationship. It was an album that, in all probability, should have been relegated to the obscure dustbin of history, embraced by the two thousand or so who happened upon it, while his next musical project would have been his real ticket to fame. But sometimes quality wins out, even for a modest singer/songwriter album, and so Vernon was catapulted to the top of the indie heap and further still, collaborating with Kanye West and having his debut album praised by luminaries as unlikely as Moby. Still, it's probably best to think of Bon Iver, Bon Iver as the “next project from Justin Vernon” and not as “the follow-up to For Emma, Forever Ago.”

On first listen, this is an album of seemingly formless tracks, as if Vernon was attempting to hybridize ambient/post-rock with singer/songwriter-isms but missed the mark entirely. Indeed, this record often bears more resemblance to his collaboration with Collections Of Colonies Of Bees released under the Volcano Choir name than it does the debut. However, like Sunset Rubdown's Random Spirit Lover, another album of intricate songs which work best as a whole instead of as discrete tracks, Bon Iver, Bon Iver eventually reveals its secrets, its own sense of internal logic. Still, this music is not as radical a departure as other bands have attempted. It's more akin to MGMT's Congratulations or Radiohead's Kid A in terms of a fairly popular band changing their approach to music without radically altering the feel or tone of said music. Bon Iver is still making contemplative and bittersweet stuff albeit with slightly more abstraction in form and content. 'Calgary' in particular keeps threatening to achieve some kind of emotional peak that never arrives, sounding instead to these ears like Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes' on quaaludes and/or pot. A similar 80s vibe overwhelms 'Beth/Rest', a song I either hate or love every time I hear it, sounding like (I'm not making this up) the closing ballad to an 80s film.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver doesn't trade in hooks or immediate emotional resonance. You'll need to work at it in many listening situations, whether just-this-side-of-too-loud in your car or at barely audible levels while reading a book on your couch. Furthermore, the greater diversity of instrumentation and ideas, along with a fantastic use of Vernon's now-patented falsetto, proves, if nothing else, that he is neither standing still nor throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Repeat listens reveal as many differences as similarities. The dreamy waltz of 'Michicant' could easily have fit onto the chilly Midwestern laments of For Emma, Forever Ago. 'Wash.' is, somehow, even more stripped down than anything from Bon Iver's debut, mainly relying on minimalist piano and faint acoustic guitar, with some swelling strings to provide needed emotional punctuations. If this is a record more about moments and ideas than songs or hooks, then 'Wash.' contains some of Bon Iver, Bon Iver's greatest triumphs, calling back to the intimacy of the debut but approaching from a different direction entirely.

Whether Vernon has here succeeded at establishing his artistic longevity, I don't know. I do know that his artistic credibility is without question; as with MGMT's Congratulations, this is a clear case of someone protesting to the world, “I am an artist interested in being creative and not just capitalizing on good will to make a quick buck.” Even if you ultimately don't like or understand Bon Iver, Bon Iver, the notion that Vernon isn't going to kowtow to the mainstream and remake the same kind of album over and over should be enough assurance to ride out a perceived misstep. As for me, I think this is a ballsy album that everyone should hear, unique and vital, the kind of thing that re-teaches me that I haven't heard it all when it comes to music.

5 Poorly Drawn Stars Out Of 5

The National- High Violet

Much like The Walkmen, The National are a band who never elicited much interest in me based purely on reviews and word of mouth. In this era of sub-genres and sub-sub-genres, I've developed something of a mental block against bands who have a timeworn, classicist sound that can't reliably be labelled anything other than rock or indie rock. There's something...plain and uninteresting about them, or so my logic goes. And then I actually listen to them and end up loving them. It may have taken until 2010 for me to get around to The National, but they jumped to the top of my long, long list of bands to explore in further detail. High Violet is simply that good, though you may have to take my recommendation on faith.

That's because on first listen, much of High Violet passes by without making an impression. It feels like eleven versions of the same idea, with a seemingly limited palette of sounds and tempos further compounding the problem. Sticking with the album, however, soon overturns these notions. What hooked me, and what has continually kept me coming back, is the album's sheer sense of craftsmanship and songwriting consistency. The National's last album came out in 2007, and while they didn't spend that entire span of time working on High Violet, you'd believe it if someone told you they had. This is an album that was labored over, every element of sound molded until it was just right. The lyrics brim with interesting, sometimes abstract imagery, avoiding cliché and obvious sentiment but still connecting with the listener.

On High Violet, The National sound like the result of an experiment to combine the emotional resonance and cresting majesties of, say, Arcade Fire with the chilly, atmospheric production of the first Interpol album. 'Anyone's Ghost' could pass for a Turn On The Bright Lights outtake, with its up-front post-punk bass and lyrics about going out at night with headphones on, Matt Berninger's airy baritone aimed as much at his feet as it is the microphone. Album closer 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks', meanwhile, bears the lonesome high melodies and surprisingly solid hooks of a lost Bon Iver track (he may be doing the backing vocals for all I know, since he guests on the album).

The songs of High Violet have an orchestral and cinematic underpinning that feels like a natural development from The National's last album, Boxer. 'Runaway', in fact, is begging to be used in a movie during the post-break up montage sequence of a 20-something romantic lead. This is also a nocturnal album through and through, but more in a “I can't sleep because I've got a lot on my mind” way than a creepy, brooding way. Which is why Massive Attack'sMezzanine and The xx's self titled album kept coming to my mind while listening to High Violet. They all share a certain atmosphere and vibe that goes well with those nights where you can't sleep because of something (or someone) that's on your mind. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to picture Massive Attack's take on the aptly named 'Sorrow', a dour lament about lost love. But no, these songs belong to The National. It's hard to imagine anyone else delivering the stunning middle three songs of this album, 'Afraid Of Everyone', 'Bloodbuzz Ohio', and 'Lemonworld', or the sounds-weird-in-concept-but-is-nowhere-near-that-morose 'Conversation 16', with its dream-like lyrics that somehow encompass romance, zombies, and suicide.

High Violet is not the most immediate, flashy, revolutionary, or controversial release, but it doesn't want to be. Instead it's just a damn fine piece of music, one that may not instantly win you over, but—you'll have to take my word for it—one that is also worth the time and effort to enjoy.

5 Poorly Drawn Stars Out Of 5

EP Round-Up: Grizzly Bear, Deerhunter, & Bon Iver

Grizzly Bear- Friend EP

Friend may be referred to officially as an EP, but it's a dubious designation for two reasons. One, it clocks in at 43 minutes, which is longer than full albums by a lot of bands. The other reason is that three of the tracks are actually covers of Grizzly Bear songs by other bands. Perhaps it's better to think of this as a hip hop style mixtape?? I don't know.

Regardless, the three covers are all generally good and done in the style of the respective bands. I do wish that CSS or Atlas Sound would've flipped a coin so we didn't get two covers of 'Knife', but whatever: I love that song and their takes on it are very different. As for the Grizzly Bear material, it represents a strange nexus between all three of their albums. Their remakes of 'Alligator' and 'Little Brother' are in the more electric, dynamic style of Veckatimest, which is odd since that album wouldn't be released for another year and a half after the Friend EP was. Anyway, 'Granny Diner' is clearly a Yellow House leftover and there's an alternate version of 'Shift' from Horn Of Plenty, so we've effectively got pieces of every Grizzly Bear release on this EP, whether in spirit/sound or actual music. The rest of the material is as hit or miss as you might expect, though I do want to mention that I wish that annoying gap of silence and subsequent rocking out wasn't tucked unto the end of 'Deep Blue Sea.'

While everyone should get the albums first and most people will be content with only those, diehard fans looking for something more--not necessarily something new--will find much to enjoy in this surprisingly meaty EP.

Deerhunter- Fluourescent Grey EP

I have the habit of thinking of bands as a linear progression or story, with a very clear evolution or path toward or away from something. While I probably have forced this structure where it doesn't belong, it seems like more often than not it fits a band. Something like the Fluorescent Grey EP is reason why because it is such an obvious stepping stone between Deerhunter's Cryptograms and last year's phenomenal Microcastle.

Of this release, in an interview with Pitchfork Media, Bradford Cox said: "It's like four singles. I almost feel like we should have saved the songs for the next record...But they're all four singles; they're all four good. They could stand on their own." While I couldn't have planned the "stepping stone" comment any better if I was trying to make him connect the albums, I do want to address the "these are four singles" comment. Mind you, Fluorescent Grey is only four songs, so it's easy to criticize such a release for not having enough material. But in the same way that Portal, the PC game, was so awesome partially due to its brevity, Fluorescent Grey is awesome because it gives you just enough music to enjoy in one burst. Also similar to Portal, the quality of the material is shockingly high. I don't know if I'd qualify all of these songs as singles in the traditional sense of a Top 10 hit song, but in terms of indie rock 7"s or what have you, they could absolutely fly. The first three songs definitely feel like steps toward the more pop oriented Microcastle, while 'Wash Off' is a look back to the by turns dreamy and intense shoegazer-isms of Cryptograms.

Like their friends in Animal Collective, Deerhunter seem to get that EPs can be more than just "maybe a new track or two and some remixes or covers." Fluorescent Grey is an excellent dollop of songs you can't get anywhere else, and well worth the price for casual or hardcore fans.

Bon Iver- Blood Bank EP

If this decade has, for the mainstream anyway, been the decline of the album--due to digital music stores, the ease of piracy, or the way we listen to music nowadays--then it has also seen the resurgence of the single as a viable artistic venue. Since people don't feel bad about spending $1 (or less) on a song (or a ringtone of said song), singles have become a much bigger thing than in the 90s, when they pretty much died thanks to the lameness and expense of CD singles. At the same time, I think the EP has come into its own as an artistic format as well. If you buy digitally, you're still only spending about a dollar per song.

According to Wikipedia, most of Blood Bank's sales came from digital sources. That's pretty much par for the course these days, since the only way I ever end up with EPs is getting the digital version (legally or otherwise) or when EPs are packed in as companions with vinyl records. Maybe it's just a money-to-music ratio, I don't know how I justify it. Anyway, since Bon Iver was one of the biggest stories of 2008, it only made sense that those clamoring for more from Justin Vernon would jump on anything Bon Iver in '09, whether it be this EP or his collaboration with a band under the name Volcano Choir. While the latter will likely puzzle those fans who come to Bon Iver from the singer/songwriter/folk perspective, Blood Bank will be a welcome snack while waiting for Vernon's next Bon Iver album.

Other than 'Woods', with its unique vocoder'd vocals and lack of any other instruments (think 'Because' by the Beatles, but not as good), Blood Bank sticks closely to the For Emma, Forever Ago template. So this EP is a case of "more of the same but still good; not essential but recommended for hungry fans."

The Best Albums of 2008 Part 2

8) Stephen Malkmus- Real Emotional Trash
Call me a super fan. Say that I have a man-crush on Stephen Malkmus. Whatever. Much as I love Pavement and wish Malkmus would get the boys back together, I'm not a fool. Those days are gone and Malkmus is wisely following his own muse from album to album. Real Emotional Trash takes Malkmus's flirtations with guitar heroics and the jam scene to its inevitable conclusion, adding ex-Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss to level out the bottom end. The result is less Phish or the extended moments of Led Zepplin than it is the Malkmus-ian aesthetic we've come to love but with even more emphasis on guitar-led improvisation than Pig Lib. The lengthy title track was one of this year's best joyrides.

7) Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago
I think I said it best in my review: "It's always easy for me to forget albums like this when I'm discussing my 'best of the year' lists with the other music nerds and obsessives. These kinds of records, well, they don't change the world, create new genres, or instantly make scenes and sound-alikes sprout up in their wake. No, For Emma, Forever Ago is a familiar but fantastic pleasure, like spending a day off with a pot of tea, a new novel, and a rainstorm. The environment is well known but the novel is not. So it is with this album. It's one of the 2008's best (though technically it was self-released in 2007, so...) and a low key, strongly human piece of loss, pain, and recovery."

6) Portishead- Third
While I mostly fixated on the "comeback of the year!!" aspect of this release, one thing that's been sticking in the back of my mind has finally come out. Third reminded me of why I love electronic music. If accused of favoring rock above all other forms of music, I would concede the point. But albums like Third drop into my lap like a needy cat and whaddya know, I love electronic music, too. Using the tried and true "drum/synth loops with a vocalist" style as set in stone during the trip hop era, Third takes everything in a darker, more overtly synthetic direction while still remaining true to the band's feel and way with a song. Darker, more dissonant...it's like the soundtrack to Children of Men.

5) Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer
I wrote a really clumsy, music critic navel gazing kind of review for this album, but I think my point still stands: this album is every bit as good as their debut if you give it enough time. At Mount Zoomer seemed to be a pretty divisive release and while I fully understand why, I still think it's great if taken on its own terms. It doesn't have any songs as immediately stunning and memorable as 'I'll Believe In Anything', but it's got more variety and takes more chances. That counts for something in my book.

4) Sun Kil Moon- April
Had I ever listened to a Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon (or even a Mark Kozelek solo release) album before April, I'm not sure I would have thought this album was so good. Maybe it was his worst release?? Well, having now gone back and picked up a good deal of Kozelek's work under those various monikers, I can safely say that April is still one of my favorites of the year. There's just something about his voice, his way with words, and the Neil Young-esque combination of skeletal acoustic ballads and extended guitar rockers that I can't get enough of. That the album is so long and I don't get bored halfway through speaks to its quality.

3) TV On The Radio- Dear Science
If Return To Cookie Mountain was the breakout release that Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes should have been, then Dear Science firmly entrenches TV On The Radio in the upper echelons of the indie rock world. The album is poppier, more polished, and more accessible than previous releases yet none of these are knocks against it. If anything, TV On The Radio have improved their way with vocals and their trademark hard-to-describe production, mixing hip hop, electronic, experimental, jazz, and indie rock textures, melodies, and rhythms into a magnificent soup. There's something quintessentially American about the band, at least the "classless, colorless" America that I hold as an ideal; between these guys and Barack Obama winning the election, this suburban white boy is happy to see that this country isn't as racist, conservative, and racially divisive as I thought.

2) Deerhunter- Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
Yes, I haven't reviewed the "bonus album" that comes with Microcastle. But that doesn't change the fact that Microcastle itself is an incredible achievement for the band. As with the above TV On The Radio release, it polished and opened up the band's pop influences while still being very Deerhunter-y. Were I a lazy critic, I would say that all the pop songs ended up on the album while all the psychedelic/shoegazer stuff ended up on Weird Era Cont. But that's not entirely true. Weird Era Cont. is more like a midway point between Cryptograms and Microcastle. But I digress. As a one-two punch, the twin release from Deerhunter is brilliant noise pop and 2008's best bang-for-the-buck.

1) Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes (and the Sun Giant EP)
While Deerhunter officially paired their two releases from this year, the Fleet Foxes indirectly paired their EP with the self titled debut. As good as Sun Giant is, it can't help but feel like an appetizer for the album. I'm trying to keep my hyperbole in check here, but Fleet Foxes is the most fully formed and brilliant debut in recent memory. We're talking Surfer Rosa "fully formed and brilliant debut" territory here. If this were 2003 or 2004, Fleet Foxes would have been lumped in with the psych-folk movement. As it is, the band's phenomenally gorgeous vocal harmonies (here comes the Beach Boys comparison...!!) recall the old masters the Beach Boys while their music gathers from old Americana staples like folk and country as well as the tried and true classic rock and singer/songwriter soundscapes. Yet for as many reference points as you might have for the band, it doesn't change the fact that these songs are good beyond description. Well, there's that hyperbole sneaking in. So: album of the year. The end.

Album of the Week: Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago

Every November, thousands of people sign up to try to write a novel (50,000 words or more) in just 30 days. Known as NaNoWriMo, the idea is to encourage people to get off their asses and start writing rather than putting it off. Not to toot my own horn, but I participated last November and managed to do it. Today, I got an email saying that I get a free paperback proof copy of my novel for 'winning.' Of course I'm pretty excited about this, because it's actual physical evidence that I can finish something creative. That kind of excitement--being able to create something and see it birthed into the world as a physical object--must have been equally titillating for Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver, who recorded For Emma, Forever Ago and self-released it, eventually getting picked up by indie stalwarts 4AD (in the U.K.) and Jagjaguwar (in the U.S.). Flash forward to last month and he's performing on 'Live With Conan O'Brien.'

It's an inspiring story, and one I can now vaguely relate to. The interesting tale of this album's creation is a bit better than my "I wrote a novel in a month because I felt like it", though: recorded in remote Wisconsin, after the breakup of a band and a relationship, For Emma, Forever Ago was put down in a few months time mostly by Vernon who had originally intended to spend said time recuperating from the events of the previous year. The story could've out shined the album, but here Bon Iver has released one of those special and rare singer/songwriter albums that have their own unique feel and atmosphere but belong to a rich tradition of other special and rare singer/songwriter albums.

It's easy to romanticize the 'suffering artist' because it seems like so much great art is born out of pain and desperation. Indeed, there is something...damaged about needing to express yourself even though you fear the judgment of others and doubt the quality of your expression. Maybe it's egotistical, but artists are people who have to express their ideas, emotions, and feelings in some manner instead of just keeping them inside or only talking about them like most people. Yet great art doesn't demand pain to happen. I would argue, though, that the most human of art comes from deep emotions. It can be pain, but it doesn't have to be. I mean, I like Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited but Blood on the Tracks is, to me, his most human, moving, and memorable album even if he denies it has any basis in reality. So it is that I find For Emma, Forever Ago great art, because it is movingly human in its searching lyrics and longing music. Vernon may not be directly expressing his feelings here, and I don't exactly know what some of the lyrics refer to, but I still somehow understand them on an emotional level that goes beyond explainable comprehension.

It's partially a matter of taste, but once your critical faculties are up to snuff it's easy to spot counterfeit emotion and bad poetry from truth and genius. And I find both of the latter in this album. Yes, the lyrics are fantastic, but Vernon's voice is painfully naked and deserves praise. It takes some amount of courage and skill to sound this vulnerable and this sure of yourself at the same time. With his wounded falsetto chorsues and wispy low moaning, he could be singing the alphabet and it would still be devastating. Meanwhile, whether planned or not, the album itself seems to thaw as it progresses, a return from the frozen Wisconsin wilderness. At the same time, perhaps an acceptance and recovery from big changes. The last lyrics of the album seem to acknowledge that whatever love has ended will never come back, but he'll always have the memory of that love; the loss of it, however, has not destroyed him or irrevocably changed him for the worse:

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

It's always easy for me to forget albums like this when I'm discussing my 'best of the year' lists with the other music nerds and obsessives. These kinds of records, well, they don't change the world, create new genres, or instantly make scenes and sound-alikes sprout up in their wake. No, For Emma, Forever Ago is a familiar but fantastic pleasure, like spending a day off with a pot of tea, a new novel, and a rainstorm. The environment is well known but the novel is not. So it is with this album. It's one of the 2008's best (though technically it was self-released in 2007, so...) and a low key, strongly human piece of loss, pain, and recovery.