11/29/18
4:57 PM
An artist that everyone knows, but also an artist whose songs haven’t been heard.
Justin Vernon— also known by his moniker Bon Iver, and his one single that everybody knows by having heard sung by every other cover artist (“Skinny Love”)— has a story to tell in his debut album, and rightfully so.
Personally I thought that this album was pretty good in terms of an artist’s first project, but the album itself adds another element of dimensional aspect and weight once you come to the backstory of its creation.
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Vernon began his musical career in Raleigh, North Carolina in several bands that ultimately didn’t work out; he found some love interests here and there, which also didn’t work out, he then had some complications with his health that contributed to some of the aforementioned breakups and worsening of his situation. Relationships and his self motivation failing, as well as the sense of complacency led Vernon to lose his money on gambling.
From his early 20’s into quarter-life, Vernon had felt a deep regret and alienation from the last few years of his self loathing life and decided to leave Raleigh and return home to Eau Claire, Wisconsin overnight— leaving behind relationships and broken dreams in hopes to find amendment. Upon returning home, he then felt a sense of emptiness, which led to him to drive up to his father’s old hunting cabin for what seemed to be arcadian in his seeking of separation and silence.
It was here that Bon Iver developed his songwriting and music making to create For Emma, Forever Ago, picking up past projects that he’d left behind due to depression. Bon Iver began writing his songs in a setting that allowed for him to be left in loneliness and longing. For months, he would veer in and out of sanity. Upon finishing his process, he left the cabin to record, he explained that he wanted to emulate the sound that rang within the confines of isolation, in the dead of winter, replicating that conscious feeling of isolation, pain, and lost into his studio work.
It’s easy to sense the almost-lunacy found in the album, “For Emma” plays with the lyrical perspectives shared among two people who seem to be lovers (or were to be) as they lead into a near one sided conversation. And complex lyrics and melodies can be found all throughout the album, hinting at Bon Iver’s reluctant ideas of “I don’t know where I’m going” themes. But as the artist himself later claims that For Emma, Forever Ago was a victory for his mental health, Understanding is hard, but in hopes to one day find it, is where we’re headed.
“I toured the light; so many foreign roads for Emma, forever ago.”
Listen to the album below: