THE COLD WALL

It’s very rare these days that we see a folk artist enjoy as much critical acclaim as Justin Vernon has as Bon Iver since his debut LP, For Emma, Forever Ago. The album itself took listeners on a heart breaking journey through the rubbles of a failed relationship as well as the break up of his old band, DeYarmond Edison. We’ve all been in similar emotionally draining situations which is why we love the record so much, and Vernon was able to seclude himself in a cabin with his guitar and some aged recording equipment and make one of the most beautiful records of the year as well as my top record of 2008.

Only about a year later and Vernon has returned to the studio with his EP entitled Blood Bank. On this album we see a completely different side of Vernon. Unlike his debut album, with Blood Bank we are enriched by a warm, hearty album that sways us away from the remote, depressing feeling we get from For Emma, Forever Ago. Blood Bank offers four tracks and Vernon plays with a full band. The presence of a full band here makes the album an entirely different experience with drums, pianos, bass guitars, and even some electronics. The standout track on the EP has to be “Baby’s”, a fairly optimistic track that creates a peace in your heart when listened to. The track “Woods” on the other hand is far from anything we’ve heard from Bon Iver as he uses a vocoder throughout the entire track, almost making it difficult to listen to. If there is one thing that I like best about Bon Iver it is his deep, personal voice that we are all able to connect to and sing with and on “Woods” we lose that.

Not being a huge fan of EP’s in general, I was almost disappointed to see the release of Blood Bank so early after Vernon’s debut. The heavy emotion we extracted from For Emma, Forever Ago was not present on Blood Bank and although I salute Vernon for going in a different direction musically, I don’t think this album fully worked. Too much production may have gone into the album, almost taking away from the sincerity of Bon Iver’s lyrics and vocals which really disengaged me.