Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

I am all for simplicity. I think there are few artists you can handle dense complexity, few who can grab chaos by the horns and drive it into town with the listener holding on all the way in.

I think Bon Iver (real name: Justin Vernon) is not of the chosen few, and so delivered For Emma, Forever Ago to the world in deliberate acoustic-folk simplicity. It is clear by the end of the first track, “Flume,” that Bon is not looking to make headlines with complex Clapton guitar licks or Sufjan orchestration. He sticks with simple chord progressions that persist through both verse and chorus with little instrumental accompaniment and zero harmonization.

“Lump Sun” uses the same two chords for the entire three-and-a-half minutes alongside a Frooty Loops beat consisting of the same electronic tick. “Skinny Love” and “Blindsided” follow a similar bare bones musical framework.

The problem with this approach is it can, at times, flirt with being sloppy. Just like it takes a careful and meticulous artist to control chaos, it takes the same effort and care to give simplicity an impacting purpose. Just as anyone can write haiku, but few do it well, anyone can write and play a four-chord folk song, but few give it life.

There are, thankfully, a few uncomplicated but necessary components that give each song and the whole album at least a small bit of diversity. Some songs, like “Creature Fear” and “Team” seem to stop and start around the halting clank and clap and whistle of every noisemaker in the studio and solidify the sense of near-brokenness Iver’s voice softly carries throughout.

Iver has a voice that anyone can relate to and many could emulate, but that does not mean it is without its individuality. It is a voice that sits in the passenger seat and sings, almost whispers, a tune or two to no one in particular. And I think that is this singer’s appeal: his ability to sing with heart and feeling without being overbearing or overly sentimental.

This is best displayed in the conclusion of the album is the calmly melodic folk ditty “Re: Stacks” and the organ ballad dedicated to place where the album was recorded in a remote cabin: “Wisconsin.” His vocals float effortlessly over the lone instruments like a mosquito above a lake at sunrise.

For Emma, Forever Ago is a good listen, but not a great album. It is something to hum along to, or to keep in the background as you’re doing your taxes, but probably not something you’ll devote your life to; nothing that’ll give you goose bumps or open your eyes to some unnamed mystery in the dusty corner of the universe.