You know when you wait an age for a follow-up album to an earth-shattering debut, praying to the great turntable in the sky that it’s as good as the first one?
Then you hear it, and your wish is granted. It is as good. In fact, it’s exactly the same as the first album. Oh well. That was forty minutes of your life you’ll never see again.
With that in mind – good news for Bon Iver fans. Your wish has been ignored.
Justin Vernon made echoey folk harmonies and DIY engineering all his own with ‘For Emma, Forever Ago‘. This time around, the bearded wonder and his band have something quite different in mind. Something louder and brighter; something you’re not going to work out on the first hearing. Or the second. Or the third. It’s still echoey, though.
There’s a way into this album, really there is. As impenetrable as that tracklist seems, looking like a cryptic, pin-marked treasure map the Goonies found in the attic, Vernon has had the presence of mind to put ‘Perth‘ first on the tracklist. This is a good thing. ‘Perth’ is a triumph of innovation and by the best example of the new sound’s considerable impact.
Fuzzbox guitar licks and machine gun drums are hardly what you’d expect from Wisconsin’s beloved folk beardie, but then, who expected a song like ‘Maggie’s Farm‘ from Bob Dylan before Newport ‘65? This is all the introduction we need to what Bon Iver has to offer.
Elsewhere, this new sound has its up and downs. On the longer tracks like ‘Calgary‘ and ‘Beth/Rest‘, the synths and electric drums are guilty of provoking unimaginable boredom. The band try to raise the heartbeat with a faster tempo, but speed is no substitute for a critical lack of momentum. Album-closer ‘Beth/Rest’ in particular runs out of ideas early on, going a bit John-Parr-backing-track on us.
These staid, weirdly boring efforts are thankfully in the minority on ‘Bon Iver’, dwarfed by the accomplishments of exciting tracks like ‘Minnesota, WI‘ and ‘Towers‘. Excessive synths have ruined many a good band’s sound, but used sparingly and inventively, they can be the making of a song. ‘Minnesota, WI’ makes as good a case as any for the instrument, if only because it works so well in concert with a vast array of saxophones, slide guitars and banjos, making for a truly breathtaking arrangement.
All the best songs here let a little of everything bleed in at the edges. ‘Michicant‘ and ‘Holocene‘ play soft and slow, like listening to conversations underwater, with the odd rumble of waves overhead. ‘Towers‘ is a satisfyingly simple song that benefits greatly from hints of countrified slide work. ‘Wash‘ moves with a giant’s grace, so that we barely glimpse its vastness through cracks in the marble.
‘Bon Iver’ could be a great record. There’s a lot of promise in these songs, and a lot of great things to say about it. Except that it isn’t great. It’s a signpost to great things in the future from this band. The band are moving in the right direction, away from past glories, experimenting with new sounds. Admirable and completely the right track, but they haven’t quite mastered those sounds yet. The future, with jetpacks and hover cars and a truly great Bon Iver album, is coming. Just not yet, that’s all.
(Simon Moore)
