''Bon Iver'' (; officially known as ''Bon Iver, Bon Iver'') is the second studio album from American
indie folk band
Bon Iver
Bon Iver ( ) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon.
Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, ''For Emma, Forever Ago,'' independently in July 2007. The majority of the album was recorded while Vernon ...
, released on June 17, 2011.
[ The album is composed of 10 songs and was seen as a new musical direction for the band.
The album was commercially successful, debuting at number one on the ]Norwegian Albums Chart
VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart. It is presented weekly in the newspaper '' VG''. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continents around the world. The data are collected by Nie ...
and the Danish Albums Chart
Hitlisten, also known as Tracklisten, is a Danish top 40 record chart that is updated every Thursday midnight on the website hitlisten.nu. The weekly Danish singles chart Track Top-40 combines the 40 best-selling tracks from legal music downloads ...
, and number two on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart. It sold 104,000 copies in its first week in the United States. , the album has sold a total of 629,000 copies in the United States. It received widespread acclaim from critics, some of whom named it one of the best albums of 2011. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album is an award presented to recording artists for quality albums in the alternative genre at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Ho ...
at the 2012 ceremony, while the song "Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
" was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year
The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...
.
History
Bon Iver's second album was rumored to be titled ''Letters for Marvin'' but was later confirmed to be ''Bon Iver''. "I brought in a lot of people to change my voice – not my singing voice, but my role as the author of this band, this project," said Justin Vernon
Justin DeYarmond Edison Vernon (born April 30, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the primary songwriter and frontman of indie folk band Bon Iver. Known for his distinct falsetto voic ...
, band leader and founder, who hired well-known players like bass saxophonist Colin Stetson
Colin Stetson (born March 3, 1975) is a Canadian-American saxophonist, multireedist, and composer based in Montreal. He is best known as a regular collaborator of the indie rock acts Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Bell Orchestre, and Ex Eye. In additio ...
and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz
Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel guitar.
Biography
Leisz grew up in the garage band cultu ...
. "I built the record myself, but I allowed those people to come in and change the scene." The second album is described as an "ambitious musical departure" from the first.
The band announced the release through various media and from the official Jagjaguwar and 4AD
4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name "Axis" (after the Hendrix album) by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD a ...
websites, on April 20, 2011. The album was recorded in a remodeled veterinarian clinic in Fall Creek, Wisconsin
Fall Creek is a village in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,315 at the 2010 census. The village is bordered by the Town of Lincoln.
History
Fall Creek was founded in 1870. The village was named after the rapids ...
, which was bought by Vernon and his brother in 2008. It was converted into April Base Studios, built mainly over the defunct swimming pool attached to the clinic. Vernon's reason for recording in the location was that " t'sbeen a wonderful freedom, working in a place we built. It's also only three miles from the house I grew up in, and just ten minutes from the bar where my parents met."
The album's first song "Perth", was the first song that Vernon recorded for the album; "The first thing I worked on, the riff and the beginning melodies, was the first song on the record, 'Perth,'" said Vernon. "That was back in early 2008. The reason I called it that right away, is because I was with a guy that I didn't know very well, but basically, it's a long story, but in the three days we were supposed to spend together — he's a music video maker — in those three days, his best friend (Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor and music video director. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to ...
) died and he was from Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...
. It just sort of became the beginning of the record. And Perth has such a feeling of isolation, and also it rhymes with birth, and every song I ended up making after that just sort of drifted towards that theme, tying themselves to places and trying to explain what places are and what places aren't. We were down at my parents' house shooting the video for 'Wolves
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
.'" The director of the video, Matt Amato, happened to be close friends with Heath Ledger. "It was January," Vernon said, "fucking 25 below. We're out shooting, and we come back in, and his phone had been going off." Ledger, it turned out, was dead. "So I've got this guy in my house whose best friend just passed away. He's sobbing in my arms. He can't go back to L.A.
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
because the house is under siege. Michelle Williams is calling my parents' phone. All this stuff." For the next two days, Amato drank brandy, cried and reminisced about Ledger riding horses back home in Perth. The morning he left, Vernon wrote the song's first draft.
The album's third song and second single was described by Vernon as being: "'Holocene' is a bar in Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...
, but it's also the name of a geologic era, an epoch if you will. It's a good example of how all the songs are all meant to come together as this idea that places are times and people are places and times are… people? They can all be different and the same at the same time. Most of our lives feel like these epochs. That's kind of what that song's about. “Once I knew I was not magnificent.” Our lives feel like these epochs, but really we are dust in the wind. But I think there's a significance in that insignificance that I was trying to look at in that song."
On May 17, 2011, a month prior to its scheduled release, the entire album was briefly and accidentally made available for sale on iTunes, resulting in customers buying and leaking the album over torrents and file sharing services.
The album entered the UK charts at number 4 in the first week of release.
In November 2011, the album was re-released on iTunes with short films by visual artists Dan Huiting, Isaac Gale, David Jensen
David Allan "Kid" Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 ...
, JoLynn Garnes and Justin Vernon himself accompanying each track.
A 10th anniversary edition of the album with Justin Vernon and Sean Carey's October 2011 AIR Studios sessions was released on January 14, 2022, alongside an essay from Phoebe Bridgers
Phoebe Lucille Bridgers (born August 17, 1994) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She has released two solo albums, ''Stranger in the Alps'' (2017) and '' Punisher'' (2020), both of which received critical acclai ...
on the physical release.
Composition
Vernon has stated that each song on the album represents a place. The song "Perth" was described as a "Civil War-sounding heavy metal song", while the song "Minnesota, WI" was described as featuring "finger-picked guitars, double bass drums and distorted bass saxophone". The closing song " Beth/Rest" is "horn heavy", and Vernon stated he was most proud of it. The album has been characterized as folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...
, indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...
, post-rock and soft rock, as well as chamber pop
Chamber pop (or Chamber rock; also called baroque pop and sometimes conflated with orchestral pop or symphonic pop) is a music genre that combines rock music with the intricate use of strings, horns, piano, and vocal harmonies, and other compo ...
.
Artwork
This album cover was created by Gregory Euclide
Gregory Euclide (born 1974) is an American contemporary artist and teacher who lives and works outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Early life and education
Born in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, (1974) and raised there before moving to Minnesota, his ric ...
.
Critical reception
The album received acclaim from most music critics upon its release. At Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 86, based on 43 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". '' Paste'' and ''Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' named the album their top album of 2011, while '' Stereogum'', '' Q'', ''Uncut
Uncut may refer to:
* ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship
* ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997
* '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...
'', '' Spin'', and ''Mojo
Mojo may refer to:
* Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* MOJO HD, an American television network
* ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film
* ' ...
'' placed it at number 3, 4, 9, 14, and 16 respectively, on their "Top 50 Albums of 2011" lists. '' Billboard'' placed it at number 2 on their "Best Albums of 2011" list. ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' claimed the album to be the 5th best of 2011, while ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' placed ''Bon Iver'' at number 21 on the list "50 Best Albums of 2011".
Tim Sendra, of AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
, however, gave the album a mostly mixed review. The criticism stems mainly from the album's departure in sound from Bon Iver's previous work. He accuses the album of being too overblown due to the additional instruments and not as intimate as ''For Emma'', saying, "He was doing just fine on his own and didn't need all those people and instruments cluttering up the air."
''Bon Iver'' won Best Alternative Music Album at the 2012 Grammy Awards, while the band won Best New Artist for their work on it. Bon Iver was also nominated for Best International Male and Best International Newcomer at the 2012 Brit Awards
Brit Awards 2012 was held on 21 February 2012. This was the 32nd edition of the British Phonographic Industry's annual Brit Awards. The awards ceremony was held at The O2 Arena in London for the second time. The ceremony was presented by James ...
.
The album was selected as one of the 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far by ''Pitchfork'' in August 2014.
Track listing
B-sides
* " I Can't Make You Love Me/ Nick of Time" – B-side on the "Calgary" single release.
* " Come Talk to Me" – B-side on the "Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
" single release.
* " Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)" – B-side on the "Towers" single release.
* " Beth/Rest (Rare Book Room)" – B-side on the " Beth/Rest" single release.
Personnel
Adapted from liner notes.
Performance
* Mike Lewis – tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...
, alto saxophone , soprano saxophone , saxophone ; additional string and horn arrangements
* Colin Stetson
Colin Stetson (born March 3, 1975) is a Canadian-American saxophonist, multireedist, and composer based in Montreal. He is best known as a regular collaborator of the indie rock acts Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Bell Orchestre, and Ex Eye. In additio ...
– alto saxophone , bass saxophone , flute , clarinets , saxophone ; additional string and horn arrangements
* Mikey Noyce – vocals
* Rob Moose
Rob Moose (born 1982) is an American multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, conductor, and orchestrator. He primarily plays the violin, viola, and guitar.
Early life and education
Moose was born in 1982. He was raised in Windsor, Connect ...
– violins , violas ; string and horn arrangements
* Justin Vernon
Justin DeYarmond Edison Vernon (born April 30, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the primary songwriter and frontman of indie folk band Bon Iver. Known for his distinct falsetto voic ...
– vocals , Korg M1
The Korg M1 is a synthesizer and music workstation manufactured by Korg from 1988 to 1995. According to ''Sound on Sound'', it is one of the bestselling synthesizers, selling an estimated 250,000 units.
Development
Korg's chief engineer, Junic ...
, guitars , baritone guitar , drums , bass , high strung guitar , cymbals , 909
__NOTOC__
Year 909 ( CMIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Britain
* King Edward the Elder and his sister, Princess Æthelflæd of Mercia, raid Danish ...
, RE-201 , CDO choirs , pianos , electric guitars , synth patches , choirs , banjo , nylon guitar
The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor ...
, synth , bass drum , twelve-string delays
Delays are an English indie band formed in Southampton, which consisted of brothers Greg and Aaron Gilbert, Colin Fox and Rowly until Greg Gilbert's death in 2021. The band's sound combines guitar and synths and featured Greg Gilbert's distinc ...
, finger cymbals
Zills or zils (from Turkish 'cymbals'), also called finger cymbals, are small metallic cymbals used in belly dancing and similar performances. They are called () in Egypt. They are similar to Tibetan tingsha bells. In Western music, several pa ...
, tremolo piano , hands , tape head guitars ; additional string and horn arrangements
* Matt McCaughan – drums , RE-201 , snare drums , brushes , bass drum , thighs , hand claps , granular synthesis Granular synthesis is a sound synthesis method that operates on the microsound time scale.
It is based on the same principle as sampling. However, the samples are split into small pieces of around 1 to 100 ms in duration. These small pieces ar ...
, synth , drum source , gates , 909
* Tom Wincek – granular synthesis
* Sean Carey – vocals , drums , choirs , vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...
, bowed vibraphone , Harmony Engine , bass drum , mallet drums , processing
* Greg Leisz
Gregory Brian Leisz ( ; born September 18, 1949) is an American musician. He is a songwriter, recording artist, and producer. He plays guitar, dobro, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel guitar.
Biography
Leisz grew up in the garage band cultu ...
– pedal steel
The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...
* Brian Joseph – RE-201 , gates
* Jim Schoenecker – granular synthesis
* CJ "Carm" Camerieri – French horns , trumpets , pedal trumpets , muted trumpets , piccolo trumpet ; additional string and horn arrangements
Production
* Justin Vernon – production, engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
, mixing
* Brian Joseph – engineering, mixing
* Nate Vernon – additional engineering
* Andy Immerman – assistant engineering
* Greg Calbi – mastering
Design
* Gregory Euclide – paintings
* Daniel Murphy – design, layout
Layout may refer to:
* Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page
** Comprehensive layout (comp), a proposed page layout presented by a designer to their client
* Layout (computing), the process of calculating the position of obj ...
, handwriting
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Commercial performance
As of January 2012 UK sales stand at 120,000 copies according to The Guardian. In October 2011 it was awarded a double gold certification from the Independent Music Companies Association
The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...
which indicated sales of at least 150,000 copies throughout Europe.
Certifications
Release history
References
Further reading
*
{{Authority control
2011 albums
Bon Iver albums
Jagjaguwar albums
Albums produced by Justin Vernon
Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album