Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP (Jagjaguwar)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Everyone knows the story of For Emma, Forever Ago and its birthing process by now - and if you don't know, it's probable you're the kind of person who's not that bothered about it, so we'll zip it. What might have worried people is the idea that Bon Iver seemed so accomplished at doing the whole isolated introspection thing that, once out of the log cabin, the world might be Justin Vernon's oyster, but he might have nowhere to go sonically. Sure, he could hole himself up again and do as he did before, but that would risk self parody. Yet the most exciting thing about this collection of songs is that whilst there might be snow on the cover, there's far less of it to be found in the music this EP contains than there was held in the arms of Emma. Thing is, you know what happens when the snow starts to disappear? That means it's Spring. It means an abundance of life. And signs of life are indeed plentiful on Blood Bank - life in the songs, and life for the project as a whole.
The rest of the EP might consist of little other than curios, you see, but 'Blood Bank' itself is the first song that Justin Vernon seems to have written with a band in mind - the same band who accompanied him to such spectacular effect on the past year or so of tours. And it's fantastic proof that he does not necessarily require a period of solitude to inspire greatness. Maybe this shouldn't ability to relate to fellow man shouldn't come as too much of a surprise - there was something about For Emma... after all that strongly hinted that Vernon had an understanding of the most fundamental things in human nature that none of his contemporaries shared. And that aforementioned live show has always been a celebratory, communal affair - we ourselves have bellowed along with the best of 'em to 'The Wolves' at the end of a Bon Iver show. This is quite lovely though; full without sounding cluttered, characteristically maudlin without being devoid of all hope, cryptic without being annoyingly obtuse.
The following 'Beach Baby' plays it far safer, it being a standard Bon Iver workout with multi layered vocals over an acoustic guitar and a pedal steel, unremarkable yes, yet something only a cretin would ever turn off. Next, 'Babys' (sic) actually specifically talks about summer, of all things, and our aforementioned favourite new topic of new life - "summer comes to multiply!", repeats a choir of Vernons (it'd be annoying, the fact that he likes the sound of his own voice so much, if it wasn't such a likeable voice) over the most atonal backing he's ever done. OK, to be honest, it isn't particularly dissonant... forty seconds near the end it gets damn near euphoric in its melody. But for the opening four minutes, it's only those meticulously layered, blanket vocals, that provide any tune. Interesting eh?
So far, the additional tracks are curious if not revelatory. 'Woods' however, is a revelation in its curiosity - the dude's using a bloody vocoder! In a way that doesn't make you think, hey, Justin, shut the hell up with that vocoder! That's because the vocal technique is used in a way that's far more Laurie Anderson than it is Cher, and 'The Woods' is a very haunting, very good, song. There's nothing but vocals going on here, but for once , they're sounding different. Rather than ruining his voice, the effect actually makes the song.
So there mightn't be a lot of it (just over a quarter of an hour, truth told), but there's a lot we can do with the Blood Bank EP. For one thing, we can finally cease all talk of f**king log cabins, and get on with anticipating new Bon Iver music without reservation. Because the remarkable thing about 'Blood Bank' is that is suggests the music is actually getting better.
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