Comments on: Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

By: phinehas

phinehas — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:18:16 +0000

This guy blew me away, probably b/c he caught me by surprise. I had dumped a bunch of songs from the blogosphere onto my ipod and visited my friend a town over (I live in Japan). At the bus station “Skinny Love” started playing and I didn’t even really notice it until the chorus hit. I knew right away I’d be listening to it for a long time.

Honestly, I think most of the commenters here are victims of the hype. It happens to the best of us, unfortunately (me, too – I couldn’t really get into the last one by Of Montreal that everyone lauded praise upon). For your sakes, though, wish you could’ve heard him with no barriers to entry, as there is something markedly different about this album that I think makes it a beautiful baring of one’s soul.

By: oliverx12

oliverx12 — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:46:36 +0000

I really like this album. It’s not breathtaking straight from the bat but its definitely a grower

By: Dylan

Dylan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:25:29 +0000

I really do like Solsbury Hill!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:56:32 +0000

What’s so wrong with Peter Gabriel? The man created a smarter pop and is becoming a bigger influence today. My favorite example is Yeasayer’s “Sunrise”, which is phenomenal and definitely has tings of Peter Gabriel.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:46:46 +0000

I liked Solsbury Hill.

No, really!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:02:04 +0000

Peter Gabriel. Low blow Dylan, low blow.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:58:52 +0000

It just sounds unfinished to me.

A lot of music like this sounds too much like a jam session.. It might be okay once he’s finished writing the songs.

And why has he double-tracked his voice on Skinny Love? To me, that undermines the raw sound I suspect he’s going for, and just makes him sound like Peter Gabriel.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 29 May 2008 08:32:08 +0000

Perhaps. There have been times when I’ve completely discarded an album for being boring, not listened to it for eight months or something like that, and then heard it again and had a completely different reaction. Not sure how that works, but it definitely does happen from time to time.

By: China

China — Thu, 29 May 2008 03:16:28 +0000

I downloaded “Skinny Love” a few months ago and thought, “meh,” and figured I’d get really bored with the full album. Then I listened to the full album last week and thought, “you know, he has quite a nice voice.” And I liked it. Not sure where the change of heart came from. Maybe you need to sit with it for…erm…much longer?

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:38:42 +0000

Bonnie Prince Billy (fuck him and his fucking quotation marks) is a little lovelier, I would say. Nothing more quantifiable than that.

Beth, crikey if you didn’t like him then there’s no hope. I love Lonesome Music.