Back from a field where I cast of the shackles of technology to give myself more freely to the worship of the sun and the start of a new season in the turning of the world, or to put it more plainly back from solstice celebrations sans new phone remembering that high-tech is not for me and that beating drums and swilling port in fields most definitely is. Then watched other people in fields as the self torture of televised Glasto footage enters my living room, but maybe Radiohead, Pulp, Eels, Elbow and QOTSA would have been too much for this little muso’s head to take in so I will just wish a hearty congratulations to my dear brother who proposed to his lovely girlfriend while at the festival and wish them all the best in their sun filled lives together. Meanwhile I will soak in glorious music as always and re-tell stories of my love with a big long rant about the brilliance of ‘Bon Iver’ and their self titled new offering‘Bon Iver’.
A highly anticipate release in my eyes, this is an artist who forms a beautiful soundtrack to the equally beautiful love affair I am still very much involved in. When I was worrying about the commitment I was forming with someone in a period of my life when commitment making was supposed to be very low on the priority agenda, I hesitated before booking tickets to a show four months in advance and all the connotations that might infer but was richly rewarded when we saw Justin and Co perform a show on December the 7th 2008 at the Victoria Apollo that immediately entered my top 10 Live performances of all time (this list would be shared if interest was shown).
Sam and I quibble over if it was during, ‘Blindsided’ or ‘Skinny Love’ that I first whispered those three special words in her ear. I can’t believe I would have been so clichéd to pick the single and after all ‘I’m not really like this, I’m probably plightless’. From then it was a single bed in a student house where we were prone to annoying the neighbours that the early morning slumbers were made the more glorious by the sounds of ‘re:stacks’ and the rest of the blissful album ‘For Emma And Ever Ago’, never a truer indication that misery doesn’t always have to breed misery and that heartbreak can nurture new love. Don’t worry it’s not the girl I’m going to talk about here it’s the music, besides I always read these ramblings to Sam out loud before posting them on that there T’internet so that has been quite enough soppiness to induce a blush on even my usually unflappable cheeks.
Justin Vernon soon became the man who went up a mountain and came down a musician, a mantle and mystery he can’t be too irritated by as the cover of the new eponymous release vaguely features the abstract image of a red shack nestled in opaque surroundings, but I don’t feel that this is a release that could have been penned and planned alone in a cabin. There is a musical cohesion here that is born out of a group working on the same page and a rhythmic dynamacism that would be difficult to beat out alone, pardon the pretentious punnery.
The album reflects the interesting and diverse musical journey that Justin Vernon has been on since we first heard his heartbroken and weather-beaten voice three years ago. Encompassing the somewhat spooky atmospheric styling’s practiced in his side project ‘Volcano Choir’ to the vo-coded musings that have seen his work popping up in such places as Kanye West’s albums, but at the core is still the genius and honesty of a true warrior poet. This album is more an act of musical exploration than emotional desperation but it still manages to create the same mystical sense of belonging and all the depth of a perfect balance of bitter and sweet that ‘For Emma’ ever did. From a totally different place in their lives Justin and Bon Iver have created something truly magnificent, maybe that mysterious barn is inside of him to draw on that deep loneliness and no matter how far we all come we still carry the weight.
There is subtle lairing in this music that is understated and hypnotic, the saxophone stylings of Mike Lewis give a haunting holy quality to some pieces that resonates so well with the coarse folk vocal. Each song is named after places, some real and some fictional that delivers the music from a landscape straight out of another place and gives the music a landscape all of its own, this is not a sing-along lyrical album its built upon a deeply personal poetry that bends round music that ranges from the depths of pitch bended folk to pure 80’s power ballad. Justin basks so brilliantly in the bitter but with the personally empowered vision that without this depth of misery we could never experience any joy. This is a love album with more reality and honesty than many people will ever be able to deal with, it addresses feelings of abandoning yourself and giving totally and freely to something that you are fully aware can throw you to the ground mercilessly, it talks of hiding in intoxication and learning from your mistakes by being able to criticise yourself and distract from your own self as a being of ego and become something more pure more holy. These messages are not thrown in your face they are subtlety woven into wording and music that will intoxicate and cure.
I will not be hesitating or feeling concerned at the four months I will have to book in advance to see this group play live in the UK again and will be very happy to be standing there with someone who has taught me so much and forced me to look at myself with a clearer view in an ever complicated world.
“Still alive for you, love”
Bon Iver – Perth
Plenty more good music been released of late and some long overdue reviews of some albums that have been on heavy rotation in my ears recently and obviously a whole host of ranting warbling amassing in my brain waiting to make it to my fingers before they surely cause an embolism in my brain. Listen to good music, eat good food and love your lives.
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