I’ve been listening to Bon Iver, Bon Iver for months now, and I love the sound, but frankly, the album is boring as hell. The songs themselves are actually very good songs; I love the harmonies and the production, but as an album, it just doesn’t work for me. Every song sounds exactly the same and it’s hard to tell where one begins and the next one ends because of the haze it puts you under. I guess I prefer to have some articulation in my music! I really enjoy the first track, “Perth,” but the album just lulls me to sleep (I listened to it the car several times before I brought it in the house for safety reasons – Highway Hypnosis has nothing on Bon Iver, Bon Iver); after a few songs, I unconsciously stop paying attention. I guess it’s good music to meditate to… you know, to completely clear your mind and not think about anything at all, and that certainly has some value, but I imagine that for the rest of the time I have this CD in my possession, I’ll listen to the first track and turn it off, or fall into a vegetated state. Anyway, it’s up for a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.
Grammy Award Nominees for Best Alternative Music Album 2012:
Bon Iver – Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Death Cab for Cutie – Codes and Keys
Foster the People – Torches
My Morning Jacket – Circuital
Radiohead – The King of Limbs
Edited by Jamie Insalaco
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I don’t get his mass appeal, either…it’s just boring, mostly. His lyrics on this album are utterly indecipherable to anyone but him, and the music backing them up is so subtle that combined with his falsetto cooing, it just puts me to sleep. It never makes me care. I’ve given him so many chances and every time, I walk away liking maybe a few songs and having no interest in the rest. Also, the elevator music/smooth jazzified “Beth/Rest” is so off the wall…it makes me wonder what the hell he was thinking recording it. The thing I liked about (some of) his debut was the lo-fi intimacy of the sound…this album sounds like the exact same songs, except with the production turned up to 11. Every song blends together into, as you said, a thick haze, almost as if the point of the album was to invoke/tell a story of a reluctant, foggy trip down memory lane. It succeeds in that, but it’s boring since we don’t really know what he’s singing about, and his lyrics are usually too vague to relate our own experiences to.
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At the risk of sounding like the album (ie repeating myself), it’s a lovely sound, but one of the most boring albums I’ve ever heard.