The New Bon Iver Album. Oh Yes.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver is the final destination of a journey that began in the solitude of a cathartic Wisconsin cabin [For Emma, Forever ago] gained vigour with an EP [Blood Bank], veered into the peripheral vision of the mainstream, climbed into bed with several strangers en route (most notably Kanye West), and finally returned home to a new recording studio in Wisconsin with more than just experiences. 

This second full-length album from Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) retells the nuances of this odyssey through a remarkable range of sound. The album's variety of instruments, rhythms, and tones sell the ever-changing scenery, with each track serving as a literal location traveled by the wandering, itinerant vocals along the way. 

Bon Iver is a brilliant and unique storyteller, relying on mood-driven lyrics, rather than the more common plot-based style.  Take, for example, the lyrics from the second track, Minneasota, WI:

Armour let it through, borne the arboretic truth you kept posing
sat down in the suit, fixed on up it wasn't you by finished closing ramble in the roots, had the marvel, moved the proof be kneeled fine's glowing storing up the clues, it had its sullen blue bruised through by showing

The contextual understanding exists not in the meanings associated with the words themselves, but rather in the tone, mood, and juxtaposition of the scattered phrases. This style places a much stronger emphasis on vocal inflection, syllables, and rhyme, which elevate the importance of mood and feeling within the ebb and flow of each track. 

One of the more unique songs is a vocal responsorial dialogue titled Hinnom, Tx, vaguely linking a religiously-charged valley just south of Jerusalem with our Lone Star State.  The track features Vernon's underused baritone range with his choral falsetto.  The strange duet accelerates until a climax that is an album highlight. 

If you loved For Emma, you WILL EVENTUALLY love this album. Although it's a steep departure from its acoustic, falsetto predecessor, songs like Michicant, Holocene, and Wash speak to the morose, choral melodies that ruminated the wintery cabin four years ago.  There's no doubt this album requires a transition period to adjust to, but it will grow on you. 

No song can characterize this musical seduction more than the last track, Beth/Rest, which I'm confident I heard at a 3^rd grade birthday party.  The song gave me an excuse to prematurely replay the album from the beginning, but currently, it's an album favorite.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver will be a hit.  Several songs will make mainstream appearances.  And for fans (die-hard or casual), prepare to be taken on a journey with this one. It'll be more than scratch the niche.