Album Review

Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)

The story goes that Justin Vernon (who refers to himself on this project as “Bon Iver,” an intentional misspelling of the French phrase “good winter”) left his band and broke up with his girlfriend around the same time and, feeling a strong need to be alone, stowed himself away in a remote cabin in upstate Wisconsin for a whole winter. Some might immediately write this off as a trite, emo-chic tale born from the histrionic pining of some pathetic neo-beatnik. You be your own judge on that point; but Vernon claims to have begun this sort of hibernation with no intention of making a record. Here he discusses the experience. Luckily he brought his guitar with him.

The solitude, the wilderness and the snow seem to have been the right combination to unlock whatever was inside, needing to come out; it turned out to be a highly productive four months, and Vernon left with the base tracks of a 9-song debut, which he called For Emma, Forever Ago. It’s a short and delicate record, but holds so much musical weight that it only grows more dense with each listen. The songs were recorded only with Vernon’s acoustic guitar and voice tracks— additional vocals and auxiliary sounds were added later. The bare, organic foundation of the record shines through untarnished, but if it had been left at just this, it wouldn’t have nearly the impact. Vernon carefully refines the record’s tone with delicate harmonies and subtle guitar work, and a lot of clever, indiscernible noise tracks that sound more organic than instrumental.

The lyrics are mysterious and peculiar, but there is a comforting sincerity in Vernon’s sometimes haunting falsetto that transcends the words and brings the sentiments to life. His voice soars, sometimes with countless overdubbed harmonies, over the spare acoustic guitar, floating delicate melodies over steady, warm rhythms; aside from a few supplemental noise tracks, this is the sum of the record. Yet Vernon creates a sound so large with such a small arsenal and arranges the songs so concisely that the album spans far beyond the normal realm of what one might expect from this genre.

While the overall pace of the record is quite slow, it is infinitely dynamic, both in structure and in melody, which keeps it interesting and makes it more than just a rainy day record. On “Creature Fear,” there is a slow-soft/fast-loud variation with a driving snare drum and snappy bass line that even gets the head bopping a little bit— not that it’s a rocker by any stretch, but it’s an interesting break from the even keel that widens the record’s appeal without ruining its fine, wintery motif.

“Blindsided” is the record’s highlight; nestled away in the middle, it holds the group of songs together like glue. Perfectly conveying the record’s overall mood, it opens with the smooth, almost hypnotic repetition of a singular guitar note and simultaneous thump of a bass drum, which evokes a mental picture of the sun climbing slowly over a snow-covered plain in the early morning. Then comes Vernon’s beautifully harmonized voice and secondary guitar track, in perfect sync. The song develops slowly and delicately, then builds to a louder climax, with Vernon cleverly balancing several vocal and guitar tracks, and goes out with a glaring three-part harmony vocal that ends abruptly as the background noise fades away— like a breeze that blows through the trees and then disappears.

For Emma gorgeously embodies the calm and melancholy of winter— not only the literal season, but the proverbial winter a person occasionally suffers through— while never feeling hopeless or desperate. It’s a sincere and poignant telling of an important story that, while not readily intelligible, can easily be understood by the heart.

On the Emperor Scale:

___________________________________

Legend:

no penguin = dismal; should never have been made

= one listen was enough

= I might listen to it again, but wouldn’t recommend it to friends

= pretty good, but I’m not in love with it

= a must-hear that I would highly recommend

= permanent fixture in my collection

brief habits

I know, I know… it’s been so long since I’ve blogged and your life has been more empty than usual because of it. Sorry.

I used to get upset with myself for starting projects and then leaving them by the wayside. I would even throw things away just because I didn’t want to be reminded that I hadn’t finished them. But I realized some time ago, with a little help from Frederich Nietzsche, that I may have just been misunderstanding my intentions. Maybe at certain times, a half of a project is all a person wants or needs. Consider it a brief habit. After all, has there ever been a project that has lasted forever? Everything has its end. Some things just end earlier than others. I’ve left hundreds of songs and works of art unfinished. So what? They were still experiences. Maybe I don’t have them in a tangible form, but they still happened, and still contributed to the person I am today. And maybe that’s all they were ever intended to be, whether I realized it at the time or not.

Nietzsche had this to say about brief habits:

I love brief habits and consider them an inestimable means for getting to know many things and states, down to the bottom of their sweetness and bitternesses; my nature is designed entirely for brief habits, even in the needs of my physical health and altogether as far as I can see at all: from the lowest to the highest. I always believe that this will give me lasting satisfaction now—brief habits, too, have this faith of passion, this faith in eternity—and that I am envied for having found and recognized it:—and now it nourishes me at noon and in the evening and spreads a deep contentment all around itself and deep into me so that I desire nothing else, without having any need for comparisons, contempt or hatred. And one day its time is up: the good things part from me, not as something that has come to nauseate me—but peacefully and sated with me as I am with it, and as if we had reason to be grateful to each other and thus we shook hands to say farewell. Even then something new is waiting at the door, along with my faith—this indestructible fool and sage!—that this new discovery will be just right, and that this will be the last time. That is what happens to me with dishes, ideas, human beings, cities, poems, music, doctrines, ways of arranging the day, and lifestyles.— Enduring habits I hate, and I feel as if a tyrant had come near me and that the air I breathe had thickened when events take such a turn that it appears that they will inevitably give rise to enduring habits: for example, owing to an official position, constant association with the same people, a permanent domicile, or unique good health. Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect—because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred back doors through which I can escape from enduring habits.— Most intolerable, to be sure, really terrible, would be for me a life entirely devoid of habits, a life that would demand perpetual improvisation:—that would be my exile and my Siberia.

I think what Nietzsche is trying to say here is that there is great joy and freedom in brief habits, and there is boredom and isolation in permanent habits. Discovering new things is a way to keep the mind and soul feeling fresh and alive. We need to give ourselves things to look forward to, and it is liberating to feel that we have control over our own lives and can stop one thing and start another if we so choose. When we get stuck in a routine, we feel trapped.

I started this blog about a month ago, and it was a fun and interesting distraction— still is. But I don’t blog nearly as much as I used to. It fell by the wayside, along with so many other brief habits of mine. Taking its place were more frequent walks with the dogs, “insane” Sudoku puzzles with Ashley, a few new design projects, cleaning the house, and various other things that brought me comfort and pleasure on those particular days. It isn’t that I gave up on the blog— it just gave way to other brief habits.

Finishing projects is satisfying, but it’s also often satisfying just to have the option to start as many as you want—even if you only finish half.

If only my crappy job could be a brief habit.

Couple random things from this morning

1. Two people were standing outside KFC/Taco Bell this morning at about 8:30 am. What possible reason could there be for this? The restaurant probably does not open until 11 am, so they likely are not employees. They weren’t even smoking, which is what 90% of people in this part of the world are doing if they’re standing idly next to a building. They were just standing there. I found it very odd. The only thing I could think of is that they were really, really hungry, and too fatigued from hunger to walk two blocks to McDonalds, which is open 24 hours.

2. As I was approaching a four-way stop, an old man in a truck was approaching the same stop from my right. He clearly made it to a complete stop first, but waved me through anyway. He actually started waving me through before I had even stopped completely. I mean, he beat me there by a good three or four seconds, and he waved me through. What the hell? Usually I get pissed at people who go when it isn’t their turn, but I have to say, this was about as annoying. Is it really that hard to negotiate a four-way stop? It’s one of the simplest rules of the road. We learn how to take turns when we’re in kindergarten. This guy is 85 and he’s still getting hung up on it. Give me a freakin’ break. I guess I shouldn’t be so cynical. Maybe he had a good reason. I think I just drive too much and have to deal with stupid crap like this all the time.

3. This one is from the other day, but I just remembered it when I got to thinking about things that I’ve seen from inside my car that confuse me and/or piss me off. I was pulling up to a pump at the gas station, and a truck was pulling up on the other side at about the same time. Two guys were in the car, and both were smoking. They both got out of the car, still smoking, and one of them threw his cigarette on the ground, nonchalantly. If I were a bolder, more confrontational person, I would have said something, and I wish now that I had (if Ashley had seen it, she definitely would’ve said something… more on this later). Actually, I wish I had called the police, because there’s GOT to be a law forbidding this, right? If there isn’t, there should be. There is no excuse for this type of ignorant behavior. Not only is it disgusting and rude to throw a cigarette on the ground anywhere, but when you’re at a gas station with dozens of people around and extremely flammable vapors all about, it’s also incredibly stupid and lazy. Do me and the rest of the people in your vicinity a favor– put that cigarette out in your eye, you fucking idiot.

4. To elaborate on my allusion to Ashley’s confrontational fortitude… She was at a gas station a few months ago, and she was carrying several items in her hands while trying to get back into her truck. She struggled to open the door with just a couple fingers free, but was very careful not to bang it into the door of the shiny Ford Mustang parked in the spot next to her. Meanwhile, the guy who owned the Mustang was leaning against the wall and wouldn’t take his eyes off her, or the truck door. Ashley looked at him and said, in her wonderful matter-of-fact way, “Is there a problem?” to which he replied, “Just making sure you aren’t hitting my door.” She smiled, settling into her seat, and said, “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t want to get Ford paint on my Chevy.” Sometimes I wish I were more like her.

“O” is for “out of shape”

I was standing in the kitchen in my underwear this morning, waiting for my jeans to dry. I meant to put them in the dryer last night, but I forgot. So, there I was, already running late for work, and no pants– a situation I am, sadly, familiar with.

I realized I was hungry, so I started looking around for something to eat. I never eat a big breakfast, but I always need something in my stomach to keep it from getting all cattywompus on me. I spotted a tupperware on the counter full of the cookies I had made the night before (mini chocolate chip/chopped pecan), and decided to have a couple (few) of those and a glass of milk. Delicious.

It was one of those weird moments when you’re waiting for something and you don’t have enough time to do anything else that might be useful, but you have enough time that you start to get bored and anxious. So I did what I imagine a lot of people would do in this situation: I started reading the refrigerator. If your house is like ours, you have all sorts of things plastered on the refrigerator– coupons, receipts, pictures of people’s babies, wedding announcements, grocery lists, random notes, and of course, magnets. Isn’t it funny how the refrigerator is like the mecca for random artifacts of everyday life? (Or at least the ones that are light enough to be held up by little magnets). So I’m reading, and waiting, and reading, and wondering why I’m reading all this stuff that I’ve already read many times before, and I come across a magnet that I never really noticed before. It’s a triangular magnet with a picture of Cookie Monster eating a grapefruit. He’s encouraging kids to eat healthy snacks. He says: “Grapefruit give me energy, and make yummy in me tummy.” Suddenly it struck me– I was standing there in my underwear, gut hanging far enough over the waistband to make me self-conscious, eating cookies for breakfast. And there on the fridge (looking unusually svelte) was Cookie Monster, eating a grapefruit.

Seriously– it’s time to make some changes.

Random thoughts

So, I know my last couple blogs were completely meaningless and probably not worth reading. I just wanted to let all my readers know that I haven’t given up on blogging. I just felt like writing something, and that’s all I had to say at the time. Likewise, today I don’t have anything particularly gripping to talk about. It’s a pretty bleh Monday here. So, I’m just going to make a list of random things that have popped into my head over the last couple days.

1. I hate it when I turn to look at someone that’s passing me on the road and they’re already looking at me. It’s creepy.

2. I love Thomas’s bagels. They’re delicious and filling.

3. I think I may have officially switched from coffee to tea. I’ve been drinking Tazo Chai tea for the last week or so, and I like it so much that I think it might actually replace my morning coffee. It’s probably healthier… and one tea bag can make three or four cups of tea. Do that, coffee. In the long run, it may save me a lot of money (and maybe save me from kidney stones).

4. What is with people using the confederate flag as their own personal symbol? I see this all the time in Indiana. Now, I’m not saying that people don’t have a right to express their personal views, especially on their cars. I think it’s obnoxious and it makes me want to run people off the road sometimes, but I respect their right to do it. What I don’t understand is how people can be so insensitive. Last time I checked, the confederate flag represents the idea that slavery is a good thing. I know the Confederacy stood for more than just the right to enslave innocent people– but the Third Reich stood for more than exterminating minorities, too. You don’t see people driving down the road with swastikas plastered on their back windshields, so what makes it ok to display the confederate flag? The other day I saw one on the back of an old Ford truck, and underneath were the words “Redneck Girl.” Nice.

More later…

Italian Beef Update

Not as good as Portillo’s, but not bad. Ashley said it tasted good, but there was too much beef and not enough mozzarella. I disagreed about the beef-to-mozzarella ratio. I think it was just right. But I think I toasted the bread too long, because it shattered into crumbs when I bit into it, which I hate. And the beef just didn’t taste like Portillo’s (though for a first try, I think I did a pretty darn good job). Plus, I forgot to get a green pepper, and I always get green peppers on my cheesy beefs. But all around, it was pretty tasty.

Grade: B

If you’re interested, here’s how I made the broth:

2 cans beef broth, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp celery salt, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp black pepper, 1/2 tsp Lawry’s seasoned salt, 1 tsp oregano.

Chicago is… my kind of town.

I’m about to eat a homemade Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich… the beef is simmering on the stove, and the bread is toasting in the oven. I can only hope that it lives up to my expectations. I’ve been craving a Portillo’s “cheesy beef” for so long, I finally had to have one– or at least something as close as I can find in central Indiana.

Wish me luck.

I’ll blog later about the results.