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A sure-footed assertion of the artist's individual talents and landing it a spot among the best folk records of 2007 has to offer.
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As good as it is, it’s clear that Vernon still has room to grow. A few songs could have used a little extra instrumental kick, and while his songs are great, you can tell he has more to offer. Keep an eye on this one.
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Vernon gives a soulful performance full of intuitive swells and fades, his phrasing and pronunciation making his voice as much a purely sonic instrument as his guitar.
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Vernon’s music is stripped-down, uniformly quiet, and confessional, his clipped, cracked, Will Oldham-inspired lyrics not evidence of cabin delirium, but the work of an artist warmed by a creative glow that only pure isolation (read: freedom) can fully render.
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Under The RadarFor all its apparent weightlessness, this is one heavy debut. [Winter 2008, p.80]
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Wisconsin singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, who records as Bon Iver (a bastardized version of the French phrase for "good winter"), still manages to put his own stamp on a moribund genre with his quietly startling debut, For Emma, Forever Ago.
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His double-tracked voice makes these songs truly mesmerizing.
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While none of Bon Iver's background notes scream "new"--dissolved love affair, check; band breaks up (Vernon's freak-jug outfit, DeYarmond Edison), check--the chilling, rusty grandeur of For Emma will stop you in your snow tracks, however little it snows around here.
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For Emma captures the sound of broken and quiet isolation, wraps it in a beautiful package, and delivers it to your door with a beating, bruised heart.
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The strength is in Vernon’s ability to make a quiet, lonely album that is not boring.
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Vernon's voice--delicately layered and yearning--gives standouts 'Skinny Love' and 'Flume' their stunningly direct emotional impact, but his sturdy folk cords, earthy melodies, and plainspoken, pastoral lyrics prevent the album from descending into self-pity. [Mar 2008, p.97]
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Vernon’s voice is the showpiece here––a fragile, technically imperfect falsetto, he multi-tracks it into a shimmering, heat-giving force on each of the record’s nine songs.
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It’s seamless in its construction, poetic in its songwriting and moving in its aesthetic impression.
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Bon Iver defiantly makes a small-scale statement on For Emma, Forever Ago, so much that if you don’t concentrate, you’ll pass this over.
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For Emma is a paradigm of uninhibited closure, a gentle touch on a sad day.
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For Emma, Forever Ago is a heartbreaking and heartwarming album that ventures deeper than the its simple history could predict.
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The most subtle incorporation of drum machines, horns, and vocal effects transforms Bon Iver’s music from the quiet afterthought that characterizes much of today’s indie-folk into a sonic landscape of moods and nuances.
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For Emma, Forever Ago is such a hermetically sealed, complete and satisfying album, the prospect of a follow-up--of a life for Vernon beyond the wilderness, even - seems merely extraneous.
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It's rare to be so gushing about a debut album--yet after living with this album for a few weeks, you'll be hard pressed to find any flaws.
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This album is simply wondrous.
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Although For Emma, Forever Ago works best as a concise listen, as each song segues naturally into the next, tracks like 'Blindsided' and 'For Emma' quickly rise as shining standouts.
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For Emma, though only nine tracks long, is as beautiful, bleak and intimate as anything 2008 is likely to throw up.
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This writer is a firm believer that every album you pick up should be a universally accessible experience. Solitude, sanctuary and silence spawn an exorcism of sorts.
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MojoIsolation doesn't get more splendid than this. [June 2008, p.100]
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Q MagazineThis remarkable album's impact resides in its sound; the lyrics, when they can be deciphered, are standard she-left-me stuff. [June 2008, p.147]
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The turns of phrase are usually cul-de-sacs, the flights into obscurity have bum wings, and do you really prefer, for instance, Vernon's best-in-show "Now all your love is wasted?/Then who the hell was I?" (much less "Only love is all maroon/Lapping lakes like leery loons") to this Creeley ordinaire
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 401 out of 440
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Mixed: 10 out of 440
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Negative: 29 out of 440
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DaveNov 25, 2009The only thing I can add to what everybody else has said about this incredible album is that it breaks your heart.
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Jun 16, 2011
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Jan 30, 2013