As the world turns around and new songs accumulate like dust mites filling derelict cathedrals there has to be a time when another singer songwriter just doesn't seem worth the journey across the street.
And when another album opens with another eight bars of scratchy acoustic strumming, the heart sinks like a long dead fish.
Attention lost, the CD spins on and on. I'm busy with other thoughts and other plans and I'm skimming around the internet like a mosquito looking for a victim.
But the climate changes, the sun filters through the murk. My ragged nerves feel at peace. Springs of optimism bubble up from somewhere inside. The room feels balanced and the world seems like a good place to be.
Only music can do this. From the most unpromising situation imaginable, BON IVER's serene CD has me wrapped up and giddy with pleasure well before he's done and I would thank anyone who claims any hand in getting such stuff to me, however late I have been in finding it. It seems that I'm way behind the rest of the world in having this music stumble into my life. But it really doesn't matter. This is music to keep for life. Like M.Ward or Bill Callaghab, it's a voice that sets up a need to return.
So without repeating what you have already heard from the big magazines ("great" "wonderful" "unique" " a striking new voice" etc) about this album there isn't a lot I can say.
38 minutes of voices and guitar, with occasional flourishes of drum and brass. A gospel inflection, I'd say. Deep soul for the front porch of the timber cabin on the island. No rush to declaim, complain or abstain. Simple truths and heady tunes captured from a flow of lakes and hills. Journeys ("The Wolves Act I and II") into gently polite oddness. Magician creations of choired vocal tracks. Pulse of funky country dobro. Religious music for the lost highways and a godless universe.
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There is no weak song, no departure from the muse, no relent. Each momemt has it's pleasures, and every new hearing deepens the awe. Just listen to one guitar chord. One word, or one note.
BON IVER is the musical project of Justin Vernon. He will be returning to England for some performances in September this year. Don't miss him.
OK I guessed at the cabin on the island. I shivered later when I read in the liner notes "Recorded by Justin Vernon in the hunting cabin, Northwestern Wisconsin". I travelled through Northern Wisconsin in the summer of 1960. We sat in the car and we sang a Wisconsin song and I started to listen to American radio. On the way to Canada, as a small boy on a big adventure.
http://www.virb.com/boniver
www.myspace.com/boniver
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