22, A Million
Bon Iver’s third LP is as bold as it is beautiful. Made during a five-year period when Justin Vernon contemplated ditching the project altogether, *22, A Million* perfects the sound alloyed on 2011’s *Bon Iver*: ethereal but direct, layered but stripped-back, as processed as EDM yet naked as a fallen branch. The songs here run together as though being uncovered in real time, with highlights—“29 #Strafford APTS,” “8 (circle)”—flashing in the haze.
'22, A Million' is part love letter, part final resting place of two decades of searching for self-understanding like a religion. And the inner-resolution of maybe never finding that understanding. The album’s 10 poly-fi recordings are a collection of sacred moments, love’s torment and salvation, contexts of intense memories, signs that you can pin meaning onto or disregard as coincidence. If Bon Iver, Bon Iver built a habitat rooted in physical spaces, then '22, A Million' is the letting go of that attachment to a place.
Bon Iver’s first album in five years takes an unexpected turn toward the strange and experimental. But behind the arranged glitches and processed voices are deeply felt songs about uncertainty.
Ten years ago, Justin Vernon wasn’t succeeding. Just before he made his first album as Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago, he experienced the loss of multiple things—a band and a relationship among them, so the story goes—so he burrowed, regrouped, worked, and wrote songs, proving to himself that he was still whole…
Bon Iver’s 22, A Million captures personal crisis and resolution better than any record this century. Paul Bridgewater finds its meaning through personal context.
Justin Vernon’s third Bon Iver album is a weird and wonderful thing. Read the NME review here
Justin Vernon of Bon Iver has spoken of being uncomfortable with fame and being treated for depression in the run-up to releasing a collection that comes four years since its predecessor.
If it seemed incongruous that Justin Vernon was rolling with Kanye West on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010 and…
Instead of getting caught up in devil-eyed deception and silly distractions, Bon Iver sound more emotionally-charged than ever.
‘say nothing of my fable / what on earth is left to come / who’s agonized and gnawed through it all / I’m underneath your tongue’
After a few years spent working on things other than Bon Iver, time spent sorting out heavy personal issues, and a radical rethink of the style that launched Justin Vernon's project to the upper reaches of indie folk popularity, the always searching musician returned in 2016 with an album that redefined Bon Iver in dramatic fashion.
Where does an artist go after winning a Grammy and simultaneously becoming the go-to punchline poster boy for sleepy, folk-leaning "intellec...
Bon Iver's (aka Justin Vernon) debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, was unarguably one of the best records of 2007. It's somewhat surprising to think, then, that in the nine years since, Bon Iver has only released one other studio album (2011's Bon Iver, B
Let’s get this out the way first: I have never liked Bon Iver. In the past, I found Justin Vernon's overwhelming sincerity to be a mask for the
The flashes of brilliance are frustratingly few on Justin Vernon’s cryptic third album
22, A Million synthesizes archaic and future styles to address and remedy the ailments of the present.
'22, a million' by Bon Iver, album review by Daniel Geddes . The full-length comes out on September 30th via Jagjaguwar
Justin Vernon’s latest seems in part to be a reaction against his experience of fame, but it’s a lot more fun than such albums tend to be
Bon Iver - 22, A Million review: One of the most important pieces of music you will hear this year.
Under the guise of Bon Iver (essentially a solo project with a band name), Justin Vernon has been one of the key architects of modern popular music.
Rated singer-songwriter heads in an experimental but beguiling new direction. CD new music review by Bernadette McNulty.