For Emma, Forever Ago is the first album from Wisconsin's Bon Iver. It was self-released in 2007 and received wider release on the Jagjaguwar label in February 2008 (and on the 4AD label in the UK in May 2008). The album was widely acclaimed, receiving spots on critics' end-of-the-year lists, as well as several awards.

History

Following the break-up of his previous band DeYarmond Edison, Justin Vernon secluded himself in a cabin in northwestern Wisconsin for three months planning to "hibernate." Three months of solitude resulted in the creation of For Emma, Forever Ago. "All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stockpiled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song."

Vernon did not intend to write or record any music during the time but rather to recuperate from the events of the previous year. Eventually a record began to evolve during this cathartic time of isolation. He had recently finished helping the band The Rosebuds do some recording and had with him some basic recording gear when he made his move to the cabin. Vernon played all the instruments during recording and each song was heavily edited with a large number of overdubs. Vernon wrote the lyrics for the album by recording a word-less melody and listening to the recording over and over while writing words according to the sound of the syllables of the melody. In an interview, Vernon said: “Words like 'decision' and 'intention' aren’t words that float in my head because I just went,” Vernon explains. “I left North Carolina and went up there because I didn’t know where else to go and I knew that I wanted to be alone and I knew that I wanted to be where it was cold.” In another interview, Vernon describes what he used to record the album: "I had a very light set-up, a basic small recording set-up: a Shure SM57 and an old Silvertone guitar. I had my brother drop off his old drums... some other small things – things I would make or find lying around."

The record is entirely the creation of Justin Vernon, "despite its complexity, the record was created with nothing more than a few microphones and some aged recording equipment."

The album was self-released in July 2007 and quickly gained attention from various magazines like Pitchfork Media. In February 2008, the album was re-released through the Jagjaguwar label with a new album cover. In May 2008, 4AD picked the album up for release in the UK and Europe.

Peter Gabriel recorded a cover of "Flume" for his album, Scratch My Back.

Reception

For Emma, Forever Ago was received very well by critics. It has an 88 rating on Metacritic, earning it the "Universal Acclaim" tag. In an early review, online magazine Pitchfork Media rated it very favorably, as well as including it in their list of the best albums of 2007. The New York Times called the record "irresistible". May 2008's edition of the British music magazine MOJO rated the album five stars, and tagged it with the title "MOJO Instant Classic".

Robert Christgau's C-plus rating may be the harshest review of the album (compared to 26 other, mostly positive, reviews on Metacritic). Christgau compared Justin Vernon's lyrics to the poetry of Robert Creeley, and complained that not only did the former's lyrics fall short, but that the album's "solitary meditations...lose definition faster than an angel's breath on a January morn."http

Criticisms of the album sometimes center around the audio quality of the album, pointing out that it is hard to make out words during certain parts of songs. However, even many of the negative reviews commented on the future potential: "If he relies just a little too much on the atmosphere and creaking spaces between notes filled by the character of the cabin in which he recorded, that's something that more recording, more songwriting will surely fill out."

In Australia, "Skinny Love" was played on alternative radio station Triple J and became a hit with listeners, making the listener-voted Hottest 100 countdown of the most popular songs of 2008 at #21.

The album has sold 130,000 copies in the United States up to January 2009.

Chart performance

Personnel

Band

*Justin Vernon: vocals, guitar, engineering

Additional musicians

*Christy Smith - drums, vocals

*John Dehaven - trumpet

*Randy Pingrey - trombone

Production

*Nick Petersen - mastering

Design

*Brian Moen - art direction

*Griszka Niewiadomski - photography

*Deb Sorge - hand lettering

*Daniel Murphy - layout design

*Gilbert Vernon - photography

References

Category:2008 albums

Category:Bon Iver albums

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Artist/Band Information

Bon Iver is a band founded in 2007 by American indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. The band now also consists of Michael Noyce, Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. The name, Bon Iver, is a play on the French phrase "bon hiver", meaning good winter, and pronounced 'bon-eevair'. Vernon independently released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago in July 2007, the majority of which was recorded while spending three months in a remote cabin in Northwestern Wisconsin.

Live performance

Justin Vernon is joined live by Sean Carey (drums, vocals, piano), Michael Noyce (vocals, baritone guitar, guitar) and Matthew McCaughan (bass, drums, vocals). Noyce was Vernon's guitar student during high school.

Bon_Iver_(Liten).jpgthumbleftx180px Vernon performing with Bon Iver at the Way Out West Festival

Carey approached Vernon during one of the first Bon Iver shows telling him he could play and sing all the songs after which the two played a number of them together. McCaughan and Vernon met while on tour with indie-rock band, The Rosebuds in May 2007.

Because of the large amounts of vocal harmony on the songs of For Emma, Forever Ago, Vernon was concerned that there would not be enough voices to duplicate the sound of the songs on the album in a live setting. To compensate for this problem in early performances, Vernon passed out lyrics for some songs to the audience to sing along to. In an interview with Pitchfork, Vernon described this dilemma. "I don't want to be the guy with an acoustic guitar singing songs, because that's boring for the most part. The song actually needs 80–500 people singing or whatever the vibe is of that room, it needs that fight". Bon Iver performed at Lollapalooza 2009. Bon Iver has also performed at Austin City Limits Music Festival, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, Øyafestivalen, Way Out West and Sasquatch!, among others.

For Emma, Forever Ago

After the breakup of a band, relationship, and bout with mononucleosis, Vernon left Raleigh, NC and moved back to Wisconsin to spend the oncoming winter months at his father's cabin in the state's northwoods. According to Vernon, it was during this time that the "Bon Iver" moniker first entered his mind; while bedridden with mononucleosis, he began watching the television series Northern Exposure on DVD. One episode depicts a group of citizens in Alaska, where the show is set, emerging from their homes into the first snowfall of the winter and wishing one another a "bon hiver" (French for "good winter"). This was initially transcribed by Vernon as "boniverre"; however, when he learned of its proper French spelling, he elected not to use it, deciding "hiver" reminded him too much of "liver", the site of his illness at the time.

Bon Iver2.jpgthumbVernon performing with Bon Iver in Shepherd's Bush, UK.

Vernon did not intend to write or record any music during the time but rather to recuperate from the events of the previous year. Eventually a record began to evolve during this cathartic time of isolation. He had recently finished helping the band The Rosebuds do some recording and had with him some basic recording gear when he made his move to the cabin. Vernon played all the instruments during recording and each song was heavily edited with a large number of overdubs. Vernon wrote the lyrics for the album by recording a word-less melody and listening to the recording over and over while writing words according to the sound of the syllables of the melody. In an interview, Vernon said: “Words like 'decision' and 'intention' aren’t words that float in my head because I just went,” Vernon explains. “I left North Carolina and went up there because I didn’t know where else to go and I knew that I wanted to be alone and I knew that I wanted to be where it was cold.”Whibbs, Chris., Exclaim!, March 2008. In another interview, Vernon describes what he used to record the album: "I had a very light set-up, a basic small recording set-up: a Shure SM57 and an old Silvertone guitar. I had my brother drop off his old drums... some other small things – things I would make or find lying around."http

The record was almost not released and was originally intended as a group of demos to be sent out to labels and potentially rerecorded. But after getting very encouraging reactions from a number of his friends, Vernon decided to release the songs himself in their present state. After significant positive reception, helped by word of mouth and its popularity throughout the blogosphere, Vernon decided to sign to the indie label Jagjaguwar which subsequently gave the album a proper release. Vernon has said that he will continue to make albums without engineers and producers because he is capable of doing it all himself.http

Reception

Since being released by Jagjaguwar on February 19, 2008, For Emma, Forever Ago has garnered critical acclaim. The album was released in the UK and Europe by iconic indie label 4AD on May 12, 2008. When released in the UK, For Emma, Forever Ago received 5/5 and "Album of the Month" reviews in both MOJO and Uncut magazines. It was the seventh highest rated album of 2008 on review-aggregator site Metacritic, with accolades from publications including The Village Voice, The Hartford Courant and The A.V. Club. Pitchfork Media gave the album 29th place in its "The Top 200 Albums of 2000s" list. http

The digital download track "Skinny Love" was selected to be iTunes (UK) single of the week and was available for free during that time, as well as being featured as the track of the day on National Public Radio. Bon Iver was ranked number 8 on Last.fm's most listened to new music of 2008.http Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago was ranked number 29 in Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2008. In an interview, Vernon said: "I'm really humbled by everything and am keeping things in perspective."http On May 19, 2008, "Blindsided" and "Flume" were featured in The CW series One Tree Hill. On October 6, 2008, "Skinny Love" was featured in the NBC series Chuck (season 2, episode 3http). On December 11th, 2008, Bon Iver performed "Skinny Love" on the Late Show with David Letterman.http On January 26, 2009, "Skinny Love" was announced at #21 by Australian national radio station Triple J in the annual Hottest 100 countdown of the previous year's best songs.http In July 2009, "Skinny Love" was announced at #92 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time countdown.http Additionally, the track "Flume" has been used by the BBC to advertise their Jimmy McGovern-penned drama series The Street; the song "Creature Fear" was used in a 2009 episode of the NBC series Chuck (season 2, episode 21), and the track "Blood Bank" was used in another Chuck episode (season 2, episode 18);http the track "Skinny Love" was featured in another episode of Chuck, "The Break-Up", as well as in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy; "The Wolves (Act I and II)" was used in the first season of The United States of Tara; "Re:Stacks" was featured in the Fox drama House, M.D.; and "Woods" was used in the eighth episode of Skins' third season and appeared on the Season 3 soundtrack.http

In 2009 Bon Iver, along with St. Vincent, contributed the song "Rosyln" to the New Moon soundtrack.

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

* "For Emma" b/w "Wisconsin" (September 15, 2008 – UK 7" vinyl)

* "Flume" (performed by Peter Gabriel) / "Come Talk to Me" (performed by Bon Iver) (March 30, 2010 – iTunes-only digital download)

* "Come Talk to Me" (performed by Bon Iver) b/w "Flume" (performed by Peter Gabriel) (April 17, 2010 – US 7" vinyl, limited to 2000 copies)

Selected compilations

* "Brackett, WI" released on Dark Was the Night (February 17, 2009 – 3 x LP & 2 x CD).

* "For Emma" (live) released on Live at the World Cafe Vol. 27 (2009 – US CD)

* "Skinny Love" (live) released on "Later...Live2 with Jools Holland" (October 12, 2009 – 2 x CD)

* "Rosyln" (with St Vincent) released on The Twilight Saga: New Moon – Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (October 19, 2009 – CD. December, 2009 – 2 x LP)

Promotional Videos

* "The Wolves (Acts I & II)" (2008 – Directed by Matt Amato. Filmed in Fall Creek, WI, January 2008)

Related releases

* "Unmap" – Volcano Choir (September 22, 2009 – CD, LP & digital download); featuring Justin Vernon

* "A Decade with Duke" – Eau Claire Memorial High Jazz 1 featuring Justin Vernon (December 7, 2009 – US-only 14-track CD & iTunes 8-track download)

* "Hadestown" – Anais Mitchell (April 9, 2010 – CD); featuring Justin Vernon

* "Relayted" – Gayngs (May, 2010 – CD, LP); featuring Justin Vernon & Mike Noyce

* "Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine" – Various Artists (June 22, 2010 – CD); featuring Justin Vernon

* "High Violet" – The National (May 11, 2010 – CD, LP & digital download); featuring Justin Vernon

References

Further reading

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