Bon Iver – Blood Bank
Blood Bank – Bon Iver
by Aidan Roberts
It would seem a difficult task to follow up a surprise runaway success like Bon Iver’s debut album For Emma, Forever Ago. But Justin Vernon’s simmering, gorgeous songs captivated such a wide audience that he left the greater western world wanting more. So what we get is this 4-tracker to tide us over, this time with help from his touring band and various friends and acquaintances, painting a slightly more refined picture around his dark and thoughtful falsetto and deep chesty musings. Though it is short, this EP does contain a range of material that is immediately thrilling and promises a satisfying full-length second album. The title track opens the EP, Vernon’s skills with a sharply intimate lyric in full flight, the music pattering along with a wintry insist-ency. Beach Baby is dreamy and subversive, Vernon’s lost and lonesome acoustic guitar punctuated only by a moonlit pedal steel break. The piano-driven single Baby’s feels almost like the third act of a film, offering fractured hope amid the downbeat – “summer comes, it multiplies”. Confusing but still fascinating is the a capela Woods, where Vernon has created a bizarre electronic gospel choir, saturating every layer of his majestic harmonising in a squeaky film of auto-tune. It’s all rather fascinating, weird, and moving.
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