Soundbite: “Blood Bank” EP
By Christie McCollum
Jan. 12, 2009 9:01 p.m.
And like the others, frequent retellings of his story have romanticized it into legend: When Vernon sought solitude in a Wisconsin cabin several winters ago, he had no intention of writing or recording an album.
He planned only to hibernate, meditate and heal. But when the breakup of his band and the lingering effects of physical illness found in solitude a catalyst for creation, the result was a collection of songs both refreshingly simple and devastatingly beautiful.
In 2007, Vernon released his self-titled “Bon Iver” in 2008, Jagjaguwar re-released the nine tracks as “For Emma, Forever Ago” to great critical acclaim.
Now, propelled by the momentum of his countless top 10 list nods, Vernon (and band, this time) have released a four-track follow-up EP.
While the songs don’t share the kind of wintry minimalism that made “For Emma” so stylistically and thematically cohesive, this broadened songwriting should not connote a lack of focus. Quite the contrary.
If his distinctive but tightly focused debut found Vernon in danger of pigeonholing his creativity, this EP marks his attempt to spread his wings.
Title track opener “Blood Bank” establishes this album as different. Still driven by themes of winter and love, it feels fuller and more immediate than anything on Bon Iver’s debut: Overdubbed vocals and a distant kick drum and cymbal complement Vernon’s trademark steady strum, and for once, Bon Iver feels like a band. The song reads like a string of memories in that fond moment between wakefulness and sleep, warm and safe under the blankets, basking in the joys of new love.
“Blood Bank” is a tough act to follow, and so “Beach Baby” doesn’t even try, taking a new direction altogether. It’s a quiet, beautiful meditation that experiments with slide guitar, but despite the song’s best efforts, it feels like a B-side from “For Emma.” The upside: Considering the LP’s quality, that’s not exactly a bad thing.
Next, “Babys” builds on a plunking piano drone until it collapses into itself halfway in. The resultant refrain echoes with childlike wonderment, “Summer comes / to multiply / to multiply.” It’s a euphonious experiment in structure and pacing unlike anything in Bon Iver’s catalogue, and while it doesn’t achieve the kind of replay value that originally drew Vernon praise, it at least showcases his versatility as a songwriter.
The album paradoxically finds its greatest success in its stylistic departure from “For Emma.” Closing track “Woods” uses only 19 words and a vocoder, but its simple mantra, “I’m up in the woods / I’m down on my mind / I’m building a still / to slow down the time,” builds into a vibrant soundscape, lush and optimistic like a transcription of sunrise.
The album as a whole may not be as uniformly exquisite as Bon Iver’s debut, but what it lacks in quality it compensates for in promise. If “For Emma” is the musical representation of Vernon’s life inside his cabin, “Blood Bank” is what happened when he opened the door and took in the landscape.
No matter which path he takes from there, the journey is sure to produce something exceptional.
E-mail McCollum at [email protected].
