STACK #144 Oct 2016

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MUSIC FEATURE

in these two tracks you can feel the influence of long-time collaborator Kanye West; it wasn’t that long ago Bon Iver were releasing folk tunes out of a shack in a Wisconsin forest, but that shack still exerts a constant force over Vernon – he seems keen to return to it after his irreversible struggles with fame and self-worth. Though some of the numerological imprints on the album are hard to decode, 33 “GOD” – a stand-out, featuring Vernon’s breathtaking falsetto – is a little simpler. Vernon started writing the record, and this song in particular, two years ago when he was 33 – the age Jesus Christ is said to have passed. The track has the same spiritual undertones of the rest of the record, but not once does it come across as preachy –

Bon Iver's new album expands JustinVernon's microcosmic experience out into a beautiful exploration of duality. Words Tim Lambert B efore the fame, the headlining world tours, Grammy wins and parties felt very exposed, with scarred skin from the whole

quite the pleading, searching opposite, as he questions where his God is in a time of need. 29 #Strafford APTS is the flawless, angelic counter to the earlier self-deprecating tracks, with Scott Casey (drums) accompanying Vernon on vocal duties. Similarly, 8

of people who we will never know, the infinite and the endless, everything outside one’s self that makes you who you are. This other side of Justin’s duality is the thing that completes him and what he searches for. 22, A Million is thus part love letter, part final resting place of two decades of searching for self-understanding like a religion.” “Are you going to look for confirmation?” Vernon howls in the dramatic opener 22 (OVER S ∞∞ N) , setting the tone of the record’s struggle with the singer’s self-confidence – something he has always fought with. He has said of the album's photoshoot: “I

experience. Not that it was all bad, but it wore down these outer layers, and everything kind of hurt.” In 10 d E A T h

with Kanye and Jay-Z, there was Justin Vernon, playing obscure bars in his hometown of Wisconsin with wide-eyed questions of the world and dreams of stardom. What happens when you reach the peaks of fame, have all your questions answered, and find they aren’t the answers you’re looking for? That is where the 35-year-old multi-instrumentalist finds himself on 22, A Million – his third and most decisive album as Bon Iver – questioning losses of love, faith and morality. 22, A Million is an album set up on binaries: suffering and redemption, pain and love, sacrosanctity and ambiguity. With it, Vernon delivers his most diverse and experimental record to date. While the track listing looks like somebody has sat on a keyboard, each number holds special significance to Vernon. His longtime friend Trevor Hagen explains the origin of the album’s title: “22 stands for Justin. The number’s recurrence in his life has become a meaningful pattern through encounter and recognition. A mile marker, a jersey number, a bill total. The reflection of ‘2’ is his identity bound up in duality: the relationship he has with himself and the relationship he has with the rest of the world. 'A Million' is the rest of the world: the millions

b R E a s T and the beautifully understated 715 - CREEKS ,

Vernon employs abrasive, glitchy interference – to a point where you’ll think your headphones are cutting out – to portray where beauty can be found in the ugly. It’s

(circle) and 21 M ◊◊ NWATER are Bon Iver showcasing their greatest folk strengths with an otherwordly twist. To be fully appreciated, 22, A Million should probably be listened to in a cathedral – somewhere huge and hollow where the sound can completely embrace you. Not since Radiohead’s Kid A or Kanye West’s Yeezus have we heard an album that disregards your expectations while pulling you closer to the artist’s intimate, grand purpose. For all of the production value and occasional vocal modification, this is music at its most raw: Holy yet sacrilegious,

Vernon employs abrasive, glitchy interference to portray where beauty can be found in the ugly

grandiose while humble, relentlessly vulnerable.

22, A Million

by Bon Iver is out now via Jagjaguwar/ Inertia.

OCTOBER 2016

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