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The record sounds, appropriately so, as if it were made by a band experimenting, rather than by one man alone, heartbroken, in his so-often-talked-about Wisconsin cabin.
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Blood Bank leaves something to be desired--namely the fragility and unplanned expansiveness that defined Emma. Fortunately, this set's remaining songs benefit from feeling slightly incomplete.
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The Blood Bank EP is a fine appendix to the Bon Iver story, so far, and in its subdued elegance, the title track has all the emotional generosity of giving blood, tinged with the awareness of mortality.
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His new EP, “Blood Bank,” is due out on Tuesday on the same label, and three of its four songs abide by similar prescriptions [as “For Emma, Forever Ago."]
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Blood Bank certainly dispels concerns that Vernon's accomplishment was somehow environmental--that "For Emma's" poetic circumstances, and not its contents, were responsible for its success.
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Although it teases at the contrary for its first half, the idea that we really have no idea quite what to expect from the future of Bon Iver is the greatest gift this four-song breath gives us.
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Nothing here really rivals For "Emma" but this is a lovely and worthy EP.
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Vernon is great at seizing on something simple and spinning it out to reveal its innner beauty and this EP shows that there's more than just heartbreak to the 27-year-old. The title track, however, does sound like something by Coldplay.
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It sees Vernon moving things on a touch, artistically, while still retaining much of what made his debut such a delight to so many.
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The Vocoder on the a cappella track 'Woods' puts forth a robotic wooziness that's more about technical expression than personal sentiment. With full-band backing, Vernon also seems more social on the title track and 'Babys.' What remains from "For Emma" is a dizzying and ethereal beauty.
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Essentially, Blood Bank is one pretty song--the titular, opening track settling somewhere close to what Damien Jurado’s doing these days--and two similarly pretty experiments in stretching Bon Iver’s sound.
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Recorded over a couple years and in various locations, the EP sounds like outtakes from "Emma," but not in a bad way.
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Initially off-putting due to the pitch-corrector’s close association with the grossest of gross pop, Woods slowly enchants with mesmerizing vocal layers that pay no mind to verse/chorus/verse conventions.
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Whereas "For Emma" felt like a ray of sunlight seamlessly inching across the forest floor, Blood Bank feels like fluorescent-bulbed filler.
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It might be helpful to think of Blood Bank not as an EP but as a single with a solid new A-side and three largely irrelevant B-sides.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 69 out of 74
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Mixed: 4 out of 74
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Negative: 1 out of 74
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Sep 9, 2012One of the greatest and moving EP's released during the last decade.
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Dec 7, 2021
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Jun 13, 2020