It's a Good Winter: The new Bon Iver EP | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

It's a Good Winter: The new Bon Iver EP

Bon Iver

Blood Bank

Jagjaguwar

Where does Blood Bank fit with the frozen fog of For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver's much-acclaimed debut from last winter? It isn't an afterthought, or an echo, or B-sides, though some of the songs were recorded around the same time as For Emma in a little cabin in Wisconsin during the good winter (French translation: Bon Hiver) after which the band is named. It has similarities to the experimental, beautiful mess that Justin Vernon captured in his wooded solitude, but Blood Bank also feels like a series of postcards - letting us know that the singer is traveling on, his heartbreak perhaps slightly dulled.


The title track is the most accessible, most narrative of the tracks. "Beach Baby" is the most quintessentially Bon Iver track with Vernon's falsetto harmonies backed by a campfire acoustic and slide guitar. As the four-song EP progresses, it becomes increasingly atonal and dissonant: the layers become more abstract, while the notions Vernon presents gain focus. "Babys" has Vernon banging out a driving piano piece-a thaw, a spring rain-unsophisticated playing, but passionate and interesting. The closing track, "Woods," uses a vocoder (think Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek") to layer the simple lines, "I'm up in the woods, I'm down on my mind, I'm building a still to slow down the time."

If you're heartbroken this good winter, visiting Blood Bank will surely help you heal.

Comments (0)
Add a Comment
For info on print and digital advertising, >> Click Here