Bon Iver is one of three bands in an odd little metal collective. It’s a shortlist of things I listened to when I was in North Carolina. There’s more to it than that, though, as I was also listening to Surfer Blood and The Fratellis and some others. Bon Iver sits alongside Blitzen Trapper and Iron & Wine.

We saw Blitzen Trapper. In Chapel Hill. They played Cat’s Cradle in 2011. We must have gone with some folks from Alexandria’s program, but I can’t remember who. Sorry.

It was a fantastic show. For a band that I often pigeonhole as being a folk band, they’re not really. They’re a rock band. The show was all guitars and bravado (in the best possible way) and just classic rock sweat. I should get Furr.

Bon Iver gets lumped in there because it’s the same sort of lyricism, if not the same musical presentation. 

Of the three bands, Iron & Wine is the one that resonates most with me (or it was pre-2010). His songs about sadness clicked with me – still do. Blitzen Trapper was always the most fun.

I’m realizing Fleet Foxes were also in this mix. 

Blitzen Trapper had an upbeat, harder edge. There are guitar arrangements on Furr that are clearly designed to rock a human. To make them bounce a leg or nod a head as the rhythm carries them along like an undulating wave beneath their couch. Iron & Wine wasn’t trying to rock anybody’s socks off.

Bon Iver wasn’t either. Justin Veron is the dude behind Bon Iver and he’s not the kind of person who set out to make a driving album. In fact, he did effectively the opposite. He went up to a family cabin in Wisconsin and watched a bunch of Northern Exposure while he got over sickness/break-up/disbanding. 

He eventually started recording stuff and the results are collected on For Emma, Forever Ago. 

Earlier this year, preorders started for a reissue of Blood Bank, an album I honestly have never listened to. In a discussion about that album, someone mentioned that For Emma was still available on the Bon Iver website.

For Emma has a whole host of excellent tracks on it, and Justin does a great job of tying them all together with his quiet vocals. There are some just lovely lines in here. Skinny Love is a great song. Flume is excellent. The thing holds together like a rural village covered in snow. It’s warm and wonderful and I’m happy to own it.

That all said, this isn’t necessarily a life changing album for me. I like it and it’s the kind of thing I’m going to pull out a few times every winter. It’s not part of some musical bedrock, though.

Iron & Wine got there. Our Endless Numbered Days and The Shepard’s Dog have lines and tunes that run through my head on an endless loop. They frame the way I think about other pieces. 

For Emma has a lot of moments that I adore, but it’s not the top of the pops. 

That might be all I have to say about it. It’s a good album, I’m glad I own it but it’s not something that I was dying to own. I bought it on a whim and I’m not upset about that. 

Really, it just makes me realize that I need to hunt down these Iron & Wine albums. Those I would listen to all the time.

It also reminds me that I heard Justin Veron on a podcast the other day. It was an interesting interview for a few reasons. The main one was that you could hear how far he’d come from his original recording system. He has collaborators and support systems and all sorts of moving pieces. 

For Emma, Forever Ago was a thing recorded by him and for him. That’s one of the reasons I like it. It’s not fancy or trying too hard or even polished. It’s just a thing a person did. I know he can’t recreate that a million times over and, even if he could, who would want to?

I like that though. I don’t need the evolved version of this thing with a new attack. I don’t need Raichu in my life – I’ve got Pikachu. 

That’s a Pokemon “joke.”

We didn’t listen to Bon Iver when we were in Iceland last week and that seems like a missed opportunity.