Product Description

Retreating to a woodland cabin in Northwest Wisconsin at the beginning of Winter to hibernate and escape from the breakup of his previous band, Justin Vernon ended up writing andrecording what would become his debut album under the name Bon Iver. A mix of lo-fi acoustic folk and reflective lyrics, the album was picked up by 4AD and Jagjaguwar for a full release worldwide after an initial self-released run. The single 'Skinny Love' is also included.

Track Listing

1. Flume
2. Lump Sum
3. Skinny Love
4. Wolves (Act I And II)
5. Blindsided
6. Creature Fear
7. Team
8. For Emma
9. Re:Stacks

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #133 in Music
• Released on: 2008-03-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: CD

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's hard to believe that For Emma, Forever Ago is the work of one man. But when Justin Vernon's old band split he hauled himself (and presumably plenty of instruments and recording equipment) to his dad's hunting cabin in the woods of Wisconsin for the coldest season and worked through his issues in musical form. (The name comes from the French for "good winter"--"bon hiver"). By the start of the spring thaw he had recorded the bulk of this stunning debut, originally self-issued to acclaim last year in the USA and now picked up for a British release. Vernon's voice grabs the ear from the start, switching easily into a smooth falsetto (and unusually for a white indie lad, without the slightest intent of emulating Prince). The formula is straightforward. He layers his vocal harmonies, while a gently strummed acoustic rhythm guitar just about holds the centre. All else from horns to slide guitar is mere detail. The quality is rough and ready but the effect is strangely similar though to the slick vocal confections of European women like Bjork and Camille, all mystery and distance. It's the musical equivalent of reading someone else's diary. In code. Through a dirty window. Enigmatic songs like the elegantly stumbling "Creature Fear" with its rowdy horn parts, the resolute opener "Flume" and the evanescent "Team" are just so pretty they seem to glide by without leaving a mark in the snow. Vernon is apparently a straightforward and friendly guy, but For Emma, Forever Ago genuinely sounds like something from a far off place. --Steve Jelbert

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's hard to believe that For Emma, Forever Ago is the work of one man. But when Justin Vernon's old band split he hauled himself (and presumably plenty of instruments and recording equipment) to his dad's hunting cabin in the woods of Wisconsin for the coldest season and worked through his issues in musical form. (The name comes from the French for "good winter"--"bon hiver"). By the start of the spring thaw he had recorded the bulk of this stunning debut, originally self-issued to acclaim last year in the USA and now picked up by 4AD for a British release. Vernon's voice grabs the ear from the start, switching easily into a smooth falsetto (and unusually for a white indie lad, without the slightest intent of emulating Prince). The formula is straightforward. He layers his vocal harmonies, while a gently strummed acoustic rhythm guitar just about holds the centre. All else from horns to slide guitar is mere detail. The quality is rough and ready but the effect is strangely similar though to the slick vocal confections of European women like Bjork and Camille, all mystery and distance. It's the musical equivalent of reading someone else's diary. In code. Through a dirty window. Enigmatic songs like the elegantly stumbling "Creature Fear" with its rowdy horn parts, the resolute opener "Flume" and the evanescent "Team" are just so pretty they seem to glide by without leaving a mark in the snow. Vernon is apparently a straightforward and friendly guy, but For Emma, Forever Ago genuinely sounds like something from a far off place. --Steve Jelbert

Amazon.co.uk Review
It's hard to believe that For Emma, Forever Ago is the work of one man. But when Justin Vernon's old band split he hauled himself (and presumably plenty of instruments and recording equipment) to his dad's hunting cabin in the woods of Wisconsin for the coldest season and worked through his issues in musical form. (The name comes from the French for "good winter"--"bon hiver"). By the start of the spring thaw he had recorded the bulk of this stunning debut, originally self-issued to acclaim last year in the USA and now picked up for a British release. Vernon's voice grabs the ear from the start, switching easily into a smooth falsetto (and unusually for a white indie lad, without the slightest intent of emulating Prince). The formula is straightforward. He layers his vocal harmonies, while a gently strummed acoustic rhythm guitar just about holds the centre. All else from horns to slide guitar is mere detail. The quality is rough and ready but the effect is strangely similar though to the slick vocal confections of European women like Bjork and Camille, all mystery and distance. It's the musical equivalent of reading someone else's diary. In code. Through a dirty window. Enigmatic songs like the elegantly stumbling "Creature Fear" with its rowdy horn parts, the resolute opener "Flume" and the evanescent "Team" are just so pretty they seem to glide by without leaving a mark in the snow. Vernon is apparently a straightforward and friendly guy, but For Emma, Forever Ago genuinely sounds like something from a far off place. --Steve Jelbert

Customer Reviews

Masterpiece.
In a similar vein to Damien Rice's magnificent album O, For Emma, Forever Ago is currently spending its gestation time simmering below the radar of popular consciousness before it surely soars into the affections of many. Like Damien Rice before him, Justin Vernon (who goes by the more commonly known alias Bon Iver) has created a record of such delicate beauty that you are left amazed by how it could leave you drained and affected by so many tangible, powerful emotions.

Although many reading this will already be aware of the context of this record and how it was made, it is integral to the listening experience and so worth mentioning again - although in truth, the music and melodies alone will be enough for some (perhaps more so given the lyrics are slightly hard to distinguish without the booklet). Following the break-up of his band, Vernon 'hibernated' and ensconced himself in a cabin in the Wisconsin wilderness. His self-imposed isolation surfaced feelings of loss, guilt and longing carried over the years. With no real intention of recording, the three month exile ended up being musically inspiring and led to the recording of nine polished tracks - though polished doesn't seem like the correct word.

The record's raw, organic constitution is thanks largely to the fact that Vernon was unprepared to record and used only basic equipment he had with him at the time. Each track offers little more than acoustic guitars, occasional electric guitar licks and an inventive use of vocal layering and haunting vocal reverb effects.

The album opens strongly with Flume and you are immediately aware that you are experiencing something of particular note. Instantly, the album's striking sense of poignancy seems to flood out of Vernon's falsettos and harmonies. The song's passing lyric "Sky is womb / And she's the moon" leaves you wondering long into the next track. Like nearly all of Vernon's poetry, the subject is always kept at arms length, each song's meaning is left twisted and hidden from view, reflective of Vernon's lonely, tortured circumstance.

Lump Sum picks up the pace with its 4/4 intro - its seductive chorus having you mimic the "Or so the story goes" lyric before you realise. Picking up tiny lyric segments and being attached to them is a real featue of the album - again largely due to its fairly low fidelity recording. Skinny Love is remeniscent of Lennon circa Dear Prudence as Vernon's anguish bears itself in a series of searing exclaimations: "Who will love you? / Who will fight? / Who will fall far behind?"

With its own sense of momentum each track seems to provide the perfect platform for the next. The rousing finale of The Wolves (Act I and II) and its repetition "What might have been lost / What might have been lost / What might have been lost" vignettes Blindsided's palpable sense of heartbreak and longing, beautifully.

Although this album challenges more than it resolves, there are moments of hope and love. For Emma, perhaps the album's only song to be composed in a major key, describes a playful dispute between lovers and is a relieving tonic to the album's sometimes claustrophobic sense of solitude. It ends with the well-timed: "With all your lies / You're still very loveable." The song's stiring use of brass instruments acts like a soothing embrace after some of the album's darker moments.

The album's farewell is another mesmeric highlight. It's simple verse and chorus cycle could happily turn over another ten times, weaving and meandering before the stacked staccato delivery of the song's chorus leave indellible impressions on even the most thick-skinned listener.

Like many of the classic albums, albums that seem to pass through decades while hardly ageing, it is as if every moment ­- from the nagging, buzzing guitar string heard during Flume to the appearance of a vocoder during The Wolves (Act I and II) - no matter how incongruous it may seem becomes ultimately fundamental to the album's success.

For Emma, Forever Ago is the product of a time spent alone, a period of immense self-realisation, introspection and reflection. Justin Vernon's catharsis has benefited everyone. Among its cold chill are moments of genuine beauty and the message that we are all capable of confronting our fears and loss. This is the first musical masterpiece of the new century.

Layered, brooding, lyrical - a subtley wonderful debut
A quick and coarse appraisal of Bon Iver's sound would describe him as an upliftingly melancholic, lower-fi version of Ray LaMontagne with a guitar sound akin to busked early Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake and a vocal similarity to Elliott Smith. A hint of The Beatles in acoustic mode peeps out sometimes along with the odd arresting, soaring moment reminiscent of Anthony and the Johnsons.

None of that takes account of the uniqueness of his poetical, sparse, dense lyrics and layered, building, brooding tunes - all of which become warmer and wrap more suppley round the soul with repeat listening.

In time, this album should be recognised as one of the finest acoustic albums ever made, up there with Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left, Lambchop's Nixon or Joni Mitchell's Blue. Indeed, Lambchop's leader Kurt Wagner, upon hearing Bon Iver at the 2008 End of the Road festival declared him a major talent. He's right.

Pleasant
If you like Sufjan Stevens, Beirut or Bright Eyes, you'll like this. It's very nice, mellow and easy to listen to (if a bit 'samey'), but at the end of it you may well be longing for something a bit more LOUD AND SHOUTY to wake you up.