By Thomas Cottingham
Features Assignment Editor
After a five-year hiatus, indie folk band Bon Iver released one of its most ambitious albums yet, 22, A Million.
The mastermind behind Bon Iver, lead singer and songwriter Justin Vernon, creates not only meaningful lyrics but powerful sounds that must coexist for his vision of the band’s sound. 22, A Million contains Vernon’s signature soft-spoken, electronic vocals with his unexpected and unique sound, but he’s more experimental than ever before.
The 10-track album contains cryptic track titles, but the whole project feels more like a 35-minute continuous piece of sound and vision. According to Pitchfork Media, the interesting track names go hand-in-hand with the album cover art. The opening track, “22 (OVER S∞∞N),” is a dark track that disguises itself by the high-pitch and bright synths. The track covers self-reflection, as everything we work hard for – whether it be fame, glory or achievements – will soon end. Vernon sings with his soft electronic vocals, “Within a rise there lies a scission / It might be over soon.”
The beauty of this album comes from the magnificent, emotional sound and the different pitches and tempo of vocals that Vernon masters. This is best seen in the shortest track of the project, “715 – CRΣΣKS.” This song uses the melody of Vernon’s voice over a special vocoder that he and his engineer created to make a unique, emotional vocal noise. The song, similar to the entire project, covers the topic of love and loss. Whether it is the love and loss of a person, faith or self, the unexplainable choices of life will always win. The reason why this track, along with the rest of the album, can give chills is because of the change of tempo and volume along throughout the song.
The risky experimental change sticks out in the two back-to-back tracks “21 M♢♢N WATER” and “8 (circle).” In the first track, Vernon recites “The math ahead / The math behind it / It’s moon water.” While using the metaphor of water on the moon, which is impossible, Venon tries to describe that planning for a perfect future from past experiences is inevitable, or so he thinks. The ending of this track turns into unpleasant, screeching trumpets until blending into the next track, “8 (circle).” Once into the next song, the air clears, the mood sets and the trumpets turn into a heavenly, peaceful orchestra. While the outstanding tune plays in the background, Vernon sings about the mysterious value of life. This is shown in lyrics like “Too much for me to pick up, no / Not sure what forgiveness is / We’ve galvanized the squall of it all / I can leave behind the harbor.”
Bon Iver continues to explore the obscure genre of folktronica in the track “33 “GOD”.” The track begins as a slow folk song with a gentle piano rhythm and high-pitched vocals chiming in, but then, like a flip of a coin, the track breaks out into a drum-heavy and eerie ballad of triumph. A divine-like chorus also fills in singing with Vernon. To understand what this song really means, a quick bio from Bon Iver’s website say that 22, A Million is “the letting go of that attachment to a place.” In this case, religion attaches many people to life, but Vernon does not think that it is the only thing that attaches us. Lines like “We’re raising the stairs / I find God and religion too” and “Why are you so far from saving me?” can indicate that Vernon sees a higher power than God.
Although 22, A Million is not cohesive in a sense, it certainly does show the unique step forward Bon Iver is taking. The lyrics are confusing, the sound can be uncanny and the vocals can change on a dime, but the idea is that life can be like that as well.
The kind of sound that Bon Iver creates is definitely not meant for the radio, but this masterful scatter of sound and wonder is worth the listen every time.
cottintf14@bonaventure.edu
