bon iver, bon iver

it's unusual. (i don't really want to write a review, but i'll just blurb a bit about it.) i've only listened through it twice, but it's different.

what stood out to me was well, what didn't stand out. i didn't discover a favorite song in the album. but i think that was the beautiful part with this record and with justin vernon's music in general. it's a testament to his ability to create a symphony as if he were mahler or bach, something longer than the four and a half minutes a pop music-minded teen today can barely handle with all the verses interfering in the way of a thirty second catchy hook.

it's incredible though, because it's as if i'm listening to a ten movement, half hour opus where each piece is so distinctly unique but the album still holds a certain air of harmony and homogeneity that brings each song together into one gorgeous work. no chorus is given higher emphasis than verse or bridge, and no line is given more or less raw emotion than another.

i haven't looked into the lyrics too much, but what i've found so far is vernon's characteristically simple yet enigmatic and esoteric lines that are so intriguing. it's going to be hard for me to consistently love this album as i usually don't have half an hour to sit down and just appreciate it, but there will be those moments (most likely on a bus) where i'll keep falling harder and harder. and you can't compare it to for emma, forever ago because that's not what you're supposed to do with music.