Kiss FM DJ Tom Green on I, I, the new album from Bon Iver...
Bon Iver, as anyone with even a passing interest knows, is a band that moves in shadowy circles. Leader Justin Vernon rarely, if ever, gives interviews, and hides away from the limelight. So, for a fan like me, the news of a new album dropping allows for a glimpse into the mind of a proper musical genius. I,I landed as the final jigsaw piece of a four-album sequence that started with the wintry tones of For Emma, Forever Ago in 2007.
It’s a beautiful record that balances the blissed out, jazz-inspired sounds of 2011’s Bon Iver and the more aggressive, experimental feel of 22, A Million. Equally, this album feels like their most mature, as Vernon opens up and offers lines that in the past would have been left ambiguous.
Standouts include Hey, Ma, which, at its centre, incorporates everything I love about Bon Iver: rising energy, a military drum low in the mix and an unmistakably autumnal feel. The centrepiece, though, is Naeem: a looping piano rhythm runs throughout and the chorus is Vernon’s hookiest yet.
I encourage you to buy their discography, run away to a cabin in the woods, with lots of red wine, and ruminate. Just ruminate, really bloody hard.
