Bon Iver.....

Nu folk’s Bon Iver, aka Justin Vernon, recorded For Emma, Forever Ago in an isolated cabin in Wisconsin, where he existed on a diet of deer he’d slaughtered and water and leftovers delivered by his dad.

Accordingly, his debut prompts few comparisons, as if Vernon’s three-month stint in self-imposed exile wasn’t just an exercise in survivalism but an attempt to underscore the distance dividing Bon Iver from his contemporaries.
Certainly, For Emma, though only nine tracks long, is as beautiful, bleak and intimate as anything 2008 is likely to throw up. Emma, presumably, is Vernon’s erstwhile love, but this is an album that is shrouded in mystique, from the foggy cover photo of a forest to the titles that are chilling and opaque (Creature Fear, Re:Stacks). And while Vernon looks like the kind of fluff-faced loner who enjoys unnerving those who aren’t from his locale, his songs are delivered in a bruised, affecting voice that lulls you into thinking you are there inside his cabin, listening to the wind trying to sneak in through the windows, quietly cursing Emma.

Whoever she might be. Maybe now the pair have made up. Certainly if this extraordinary postcard from the edge doesn’t fill Emma with regret, nothing ever will.

Seldom has isolation sounded so inviting than on this debut by folk’s shooting star. In fact, this could end up being the best release of 2008