The more digestible “715-CREEKS” settles into a moody, electrified a capella piece. This track, along with its title, almost repels listeners in its indecipherability. “22 (OVER SooN)” ends where it began, humming “it might be over soon,” and giving way to the anxiety-inducing “10 d E A T h b R E a s T.” The song’s title is disarrayed, mimicking the auditory anarchy that climaxes at its final dissonant chord.
The distorted voice repeats the existential line, “it might be over soon.” Reassuringly, there are familiar bits here too: the angelic vocals, light guitar plucks, and smooth saxophone that made up Bon Iver. “22 (OVER SooN)” begins with auto tuned vocals that could be straight from an Odesza hit. This overwhelming montage of noise- often a combination of a new-found electronics and Bon Iver’s trademark acoustics- is likely an embodiment of the internal chaos Vernon felt in his five years off from the band. Suffering from anxiety attacks and receiving treatment for depression, Vernon explained, “ I felt that the only thing I could do was to go into myself a little bit. ” 22, A Millionis the aftermath of his introspection, letting us into what exactly he might have encountered inside his unsettled mind.Ģ2 gives us higher-voltage, more frenzied Bon Iver- you can envision bright, crackling sparks while listening to opening tracks “22 (Over SooN) and “10 d E A T h b R E a s T.” While these initially sound foreign and entropic, beneath the static, you’ll find Bon Iver’s same ineffable core: those sweeping waves of harmony and emotional overflow. It sounds as if something is constantly trying to break through the static. There is a glitchy chaos that permeates most of this album- both the vocals and instrumentation are multilayered. 2 2, A Million is experimental-bizarre even-an electric ocean of swelling vocal harmonies and instrumental fervor. This album pushes the group’s boundaries a bold yet natural progression from the dreamlike symphony that was their second and self-titled album. But, while the front man Justin Vernon has led the band into the realm of the electronic with their third album, 2 2, A M illion, Bon Iver remains rooted in the iconic emotion that has defined them from the start. But ‘22, A Million’ stands out as Bon Iver’s finest moment yet, a cross between invention and beauty that’s delivered without compromise.Fellow folk lovers beware- Bon Iver has ventured far from the rustic Wisconsin cabin that produced their raw debut album, F or Emma, Forever A go. More often than not, musicians determined to avoid old tropes are exhausting. That’s the trick - just when he looks to have settled into one state, he’ll throw a curveball. ‘8 (circle)’ somehow makes parped horns and shameless 80s synths sound palatable.Ĭloser ‘1000000 Million’ is the closest Justin comes to sounding like his old self, cooing “it harms me, it harms me, it harms me like a lamb” next to a sample from near-forgotten Irish songwriter Fionn Regan (obviously). ‘10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄’ drives Arca-like, skizzing electronics into a fiery pit. There’s signs of evolution at every turn. Without sacrificing the magical formula behind the music, Bon Iver have progressed beyond ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’’s bee-stung, cabin-fevered misery and ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’, which made full-band arrangements from the debut’s blueprint. But it belongs on ‘22, A Million’, because these songs collectively discover a new form of expression. Deep down, this song could exist on any of Bon Iver’s three records. At one point, there’s a crackle of distortion, like somebody fiddling with an aux cable. Justin makes an acoustic guitar snap like logs on a burning fire.
‘29 #Strafford APTS’, whatever the hell that means, is a poignant example. Remarkably, instead of getting caught up in devil-eyed deception and silly distractions, Bon Iver sound more emotionally-charged than ever.
On his third album, he combines samples, complexities, abstractions and endless vocoder as a means of veiling otherwise straightforward recordings. A few years back, Justin Vernon would shape these songs into gloomy acoustic triumphs. For all its numerology, symbols and oddities, ‘22, A Million is a relatively simple record.
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