Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Bon Iver ( /boʊn iːˈvɛər/) is the second studio album from American indie folk band Bon Iver, released on June 17, 2011.^[1] Bon Iver's second album was rumored to be Letters for Marvin but was later confirmed to be Bon Iver. The album is composed of 10 songs and takes a new musical direction. "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, band leader and founder, who hired well-known players like bass saxophonist Colin Stetson and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz. "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.^[2] It debuted at number one on the Norwegian Albums Chart and Danish Albums Chart. Bon Iver also entered at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 104,000 copies in its first week in the United States. The album has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.^[3]

History

The band announced the release through various media and from the official Jagjaguwar and 4AD websites, on April 20, 2011. The album was recorded in a remodeled veterinarian clinic in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, 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 "[it's] been 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."^[4]

On May 17, the entire album, for a short time, was accidentally made available for sale on iTunes, resulting in customers buying and leaking the album over torrents and file sharing services.^[5] The album entered the UK charts at number 4 on the first week of release.^[6]

On November 2011, the album was re-released on iTunes with short films by visual artists Dan Huiting, Isaac Gale, David Jensen, JoLynn Garnes and Justin Vernon himself accompanying each track.^[7]

Critical reception

The album received generally positive reviews from most music critics upon its release.^[18] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 86, based on 42 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim."^[18] Paste and Pitchfork Media named the album their top album of 2011,^[19][20] while Q, Uncut, Spin, and Mojo placed it at number 4, 9, 14, and 16 respectively, on their "Top 50 Albums of 2011" lists.^{[21][22][23][24]}

Track listing

Vernon said that each song on the new album represents a place. The song "Perth" was described as a "Civil War-sounding heavy metal song," the song "Minnesota, WI" was described as featuring "finger-picked guitars, double bass drums and distorted bass saxophone," and the closing song "Beth/Rest" would be "horn heavy."^[25]

All songs written and composed by Justin Vernon. 

Personnel

Chart performance

Release history

References