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Rating: A record with a magical aura.
This is what "For Emma, Forever Ago" by Bon Iver (a play on the French "bon hiver"), the pseudonym behind which the young American songwriter Justin Vernon hides, is. And to think that one of the best folk songwriting productions of recent years could have remained unknown if JagJaguwar, the label among others of Richard Youngs, hadn't taken the trouble to print and officially distribute it in 2007.
Before then, the record indeed was released as a self-production and had traveled only in the underground and university circuits of the United States.
The record in question, as partially mentioned, has a very unique genesis and story. The author indeed conceived it entirely during four months of complete isolation in an old family farmhouse, at the end of a romantic relationship and following the dissolution of his group, the Deyarmond Edison.
In the cold, in solitude, and in the silence of the Wisconsin woods, with the only companions an acoustic guitar, a recorder, snow to shovel, and venison sticks to microwave, Justin confronts his demons, insecurities, doubts, and fears.
The result is an essential, sparse, and minimalist record, with little room for arrangements, but of rare beauty and intensity.
A timeless folk record, suspended, reminiscent of the great songwriters of the '60s and '70s, especially the more bucolic Neil Young (Vernon's tone and falsetto remarkably recall him), Tim Buckley, and Nick Drake, but also Will Oldham and Iron & Wine, to speak of current times.
On the record, where Vernon's faint falsetto stands out against the warm and enveloping melodies of his guitar, reigns an ethereal, bittersweet atmosphere of spleen, of nostalgia, melancholy, but also great optimism and faith in the future. The record can be listened to from start to finish in one breath, almost like a concept (if I may use the term).
Even though all the tracks are noteworthy, I feel a particular mention should go to the pulsating and syncopated "Lump Sum", with a spectral intro featuring choirs reminiscent of Gregorian chants, the poignant "Skinny Love" (watch the video of the performance on Jools Holland Show on YouTube), "For Emma", again pure rural Young, and finally "re:Stacks", 6.14 minutes of surprising sweetness that worthily close Justin's "good winter".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Flume (03:39)
I am my mother's only one
It's enough
I wear my garment so it shows
Now you know
Only love is all maroon
Gluey feathers on a flume
Sky is womb and she's the moon
I am my mother on the wall
With us all
I move in water, shore to shore
Nothing's more
Only love is all maroon
Lapping lakes like leery loons
Leaving rope burns, reddish ruse
Only love is all maroon
Gluey feathers on a flume
Sky is womb and she's the moon
02 Lump Sum (03:21)
Sold my cold knot
A heavy stone
Sold my red horse for a venture home
To vanish on the bow --
Settling slow
Fit it all, fit it in the doldrums
(Or so the story goes)
Color the era
Film it's historical
My mile could not
Pump the plumb
In my arbor 'till my ardor
Trumped every inner inertia
Lump sum
All at once
Rushing from the sub-pump
(Or so the story goes)
Balance we won't know
We will see when it gets warm
05 Blindsided (05:29)
Bike down... down to the downtown
Down to the lockdown... boards, nails lie arond
I crouch like a crow
Contrasting the snow
For the agony, I'd rather know
'Cause blinded
I am blindsided
Peek in... into the peer in
I'm not really like this... I'm probably plightless
I cup the window
I'm crippled and slow
For the agony
I'd rather know
'Cause blinded
I am blindsided
Would you really rush out for me now?
Taut line... down to the shoreline
The end of a blood line... the moon is a cold light
There's a pull to the flow
My feet melt the snow
For the irony, i'd rather know
'Cause blinded
I was blindsided
'Cause blinded
I was blindsided
08 For Emma (03:40)
Narrator:
"So apropos
Saw death on a sunny snow"
Him:
"For every life..."
Her:
"forego the parable."
Him:
"Seek the light."
Her:
"...my knees are cold."
Running home
Running home
Running home
Running home
Her:
"Go find another lover;
To bring a- to string along!"
"With all your lies,
You're still very lovable."
"I toured the light
So many foreign roads
For Emma, forever ago."
09 re: stacks (06:41)
This my excavation and today is Qumran
Everything that happens is from now on
This is pouring rain
This is paralyzed
I keep throwing it down two-hundred at a time
It's hard to find it when you knew it
When your money's gone
And you're drunk as hell
On your back with your racks as the stacks as your load
In the back and the racks and the stacks are your load
In the back with your racks and you're un-stacking your load
I've twisting to the sun I needed to replace
The fountain in the front yard is rusted out
All my love was down
In a frozen ground
There's a black crow sitting across from me; his wiry legs are crossed
And he's dangling my keys he even fakes a toss
Whatever could it be
That has brought me to this loss?
On your back with your racks as the stacks as your load
In the back and the racks and the stacks of your load
In the back with your racks and you're un-stacking your load
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...
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