However, on that listen something just clicked. He fulfilled my request, but I was a little disappointed when he introduced “Blindsided”. I remember listening to a friend on college radio in Edinburgh when writing an assignment (last minute, as always) late one evening and texted him asking him to play some Bon Iver. “Blindsided” is an interesting one for me, in that it didn’t resonate with me for quite a while, in fact being a song that I would often skip. It is arguably the best example on the album of Vernon’s attempt to layer his vocals to sound like a choir – you would find it hard to convince someone hearing it for the first time that it is just one vocalist. “The Wolves (Act I and II)” was without doubt my favourite track on the album back when I first heard it (I vividly remember watching the Blogothèque version countless times after coming in from college nights out), and it remains a beautiful piece of work.
#FLUME BON IVER FULL#
Each vocal layer is full of emotion, and you begin to get a sense of the feeling of hopelessness that preceded that famous trip to the cabin in the woods.
Another fine example of the less-is-more approach providing more layers than you might anticipate, “Skinny Love” shows Vernon at his most fragile. Writing this made me listen again, and it is clear to see why it is so loved. “Skinny Love” feels like the song that introduced most to Bon Iver, though the snob in me always ignores the song, probably due to its popularity. There’s more to this album than just the songwriting it brings with it a certain feeling of comfort and homeliness and that is reflected in the sound here, the recording making it feel like you are sitting right there in the cabin with Vernon. Heading straight into “Lump Sum” from here, that thought is solidified.
Listening to “Flume”, having spent a little more time with the likes of the highly altered vocals of 22, A Million, just makes me yearn for Vernon to return to the raw production that made For Emma, Forever Ago so special. The simple strummed acoustic, layered falsetto vocals, and an electric guitar – assumedly played with an e-bow – is as stripped-back as you can get (even if it is one of the few tracks to have additional instrumentation added at a later date, in this case the drums). “Flume” is Bon Iver, and in particular Justin Vernon, at his finest. I think by this stage most people know the backstory to the album’s recording, with Justin Vernon finding some inspiration in isolation (I’m sure one of my EIN pals might spend a little more time on that), so instead, please indulge me in sharing some thoughts on the tracks that meant quite a bit to me at the time. Before sitting down to write this piece, I can’t tell you the last time I listened to the debut album but I was quickly reminded that I should revisit it more often. For Emma, Forever Ago is one such album, particularly so as I have fallen out of love with Bon Iver over the years. It has a strange ability to transport me to a different time and each and every time re-introduces a once-loved album back into my ears. A Scene In Retrospect is probably my favourite of the Everything Is Noise features (followed closely by Inter Claus) to both read and write.
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