Bon Iver

Time Out NY

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Does bigger mean better? Bon Iver expands its sound, and plays two huge shows.



Even if you’re not a fan, you are probably aware of the mythology that has sprung up around Bon Iver’s debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, since its release in 2007—the lore being that before singer Justin Vernon became BFFs with Kanye West, he locked himself in a cabin for an entire winter and made the saddest songs ever recorded.



Well, if For Emma was the log cabin, then the newly released Bon Iver is the Playboy-style 1970s country retreat. The snow is still falling outside, the guitar still leans against the wall—it’s just that this time around, your feet are sinking into thick shag carpet, and you’re pushing ice cubes around a tumbler of Scotch.



What does this mean sonically? Simply that Vernon has traded acoustic guitars for glistening electric strings and pitter-pattering drums. Bon Iver is an album of textures, trading as much in space as it does in melody. This expansiveness is borne out in such far-flung song titles as “Calgary,” “Minnesota, WI” and “Perth.”



Factor in the notion that at least one song here sounds like a lost Bruce Hornsby and the Range cut, or perhaps an Alan Parsons Project single, and you can practically feel the velveteen sofas and see the mood lighting. Those who love a GHM (Good Hard Mope) may be more resistant to the charms of this new record; for the rest of us, Bon Iver invites us to luxuriate in melancholy. Expect some serious escapism at these two big shows.