What I found most interesting is that Justin said that a lot of people identify with Re: Stacks, but he responds most to Flume. I am not sure which song speaks to me the most, but it certainly isn't Re: Stacks. I like Skinny Love because I can make out some of the words enough to kind of sing it, and the lyrics I do understand make me think, "I've been there, I've looked at the end of love hanging by a thread, and dreaded the thought of undoing everything that we have made. If we just make it a little longer, if we can just make it to the end of the year..." I don't know if that is what he is talking about, but that is what my interpretation is.
Anyway, what really struck me about his statement is that no song on the album hits me. When I heard a Bon Iver song, I thought, "This Bon Eye-ver dude sounds pretty good, I wonder what his other stuff is like." But it wasn't really good enough for me to track it down, and buy it (I'm trying to do that more, because I do miss out on a lot of good music out of laziness and penny pinching). Then Sarah played the record, and I heard the whole album. The strength of For Emma is in the album, not in its component songs Flume comes on and I am immediately transported into a world of my emotions. That seems like it would be a powerful response, but Lump Sum puts me in my apartment on Pandora Street. An aptly named street because of the place that it is in my emotional life, once that opens, it is hard for me to close it. Then Skinny Love, which captures losing love better than the "greatest" musicians have even begun to broach. Paul Simon belts out the loss of love as if the emotions spew forth in a froth of power like a rapids or and explosion. Maybe everyone can see you're blown apart, but the emotions have always caught in my throat, crushing me from the inside.
The album peaks (troughs?) with Skinny love. The Wolves is a reprieve. A moment of introspection on the tumultuous torture of my emotional darkness. Blindsided really does feel like being blindsided, when your lover, friend or life checks out on you. When they decide flight over fight, and in an instant they are gone. Creature Fear gives me a chance to reflect, but stirs up fear when the chorus crescendos towards something horrible, frightful. The drums spilling from Creature Fear into Team are the anger and panic I feel when trapped in the darkness of my mind. These songs aren't building to anything. They are holding me down, holding me in, making me look into my own darkness. At the end of this cold embrace is the whistling finish of Team that feels almost as if I am being taunted, it is reminiscent of a school yard gaggle of tormentors, capturing the powerless feeling of battling emotions.
For me, For Emma is almost hopeful. Is that a rocket taking me to a better place? I still feel raw, but I am being lifted from the darkness. Not to happiness, but away from fear and loathing. Stacks might speak to a lot of people because it almost feels reminiscent of something lost, something that was good, but is now gone. I think of my oldest loves. I think of the happiness and joy of being in love with them, and I am moving on. I can think of the good, without dwelling in the darkness of loss.
Wisconsin doesn't do anything for me. It is a bonus I would almost rather have not received. To me, it breaks the emotional story of the repeating pain that is life. To me, listening to Wisconsin is like listening to Vernon piss and moan about something that I don't have any prior knowledge of. It is like a friend of a friend, drunk and bitching at your party. I want nothing to do with it, and most of the time it is unchecked in my iTunes.
This makes for the longest review of a four year old album I have ever written. The point is that Vernon doesn't talk about the album as a journey for the listener, and that is what I have always thought of it. Even before so many emotions were tied up in those songs for me, the first time I heard the album, I was blown away. It was new and intriguing. The sounds were so provocative and spoke so deeply to me, I had to listen to it again and again. It spoke to me without words, which few songs do. The lyrics weren't necessarily a message in themselves, but were part of the journey.
On 21 June, his second, self titled album will be released. You can listen to it now on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/09/136855313/first-listen-bon-iver-bon-iver?ps=mh_frhdl3. It is good. It seems more dysfunctional than the first, in a positive way. As Vernon says in the Guardian piece, "I want that," and now he gets that, more like Kanye. But sometimes less is more.
The second album would be a terrible thing to release as a musician, I think. Everyone will compare it to the first. Will it be better or worse. Have you out done yourself, gotten better, or was one all you could really do. Unfortunately, I have to do the same thing. It is not as good as For Emma.
For Emma captured me in the sound. It had the element of surprise. I had never heard anything like that before. It spoke to me, the sounds found emotions in me that I usually do not explore. Then, I became emotionally attached. Bon Iver: Bon Iver is getting better with each listen, and I will definitely buy it when it comes out. Some of its shortcomings might be me. I'm not in a place to become as emotionally attached. Maybe I was in a similar place to Vernon when he wrote For Emma, and now we are in different places. However, it also seems like he is reaching for something, searching for what he wants to be musically (something I said before reading the Guardian article). Maybe I will associate these songs with searching for something more in life. Maybe, eventually, Bon Iver: Bon Iver will speak to me, and outlast For Emma. For now, for whatever reason, Bon Iver: Bon Iver seems like a good (great even) listen, but it is not For Emma.
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