The story behind the recording of For Emma Forever Ago is almost mythological in nature. Bon Iver (who at that point was simply known as Justin Vernon) had just gone through two particularly nasty breakups– the first with his band of childhood friends that had been together for over a decade, and the second to his longtime girlfriend. Stuck in a dead-end job and disillusioned at the young age of twenty five, Vernon drove 16-hours to his family cabin nestled in the woods of Wisconsin to drink beer during the harsh winter and pull his life together.
Amidst hunting deer for his food and cutting trees around the property, Vernon wallowed in self-pity for weeks before deciding to sit down and dedicate himself to songwriting. Armed only with an old computer, a few guitars, a microphone, and some recording equipment, Vernon worked in 12-hour bursts of productivity where days blended together in a murky haze.
And what spilled out of him over that that three month sojourn was nothing short of an indie masterpriece. For Emma Forever Ago is as much an album as it is an aesthetic, an intimate diary of a man searching for himself, confined and freed by his surroundings all at the same time. There’s a multitude of reasons for that– whether it be his (now) trademark falsetto dressed in choir overdubs that sound as if sung from the heavens, the lo-fi acoustic guitar that sounds as if it’s being played right next to you, the somewhat unintelligible lyrical content that is felt not heard, or the simple fact that Bon Iver has found a way to transport you to a time and place so effortlessly it feels like you’ve always been there.
It’s unclear whether this backstory made the album or the album made the backstory. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. But it’s almost inconsequential at this point– they are now irrevocably linked in a quiet solitude, forever alive in the snowy woods of Eau Claire and the secluded bedrooms where For Emma, Forever Ago is now played.
Standout Songs: “re: Stacks”, “Flume”, “Skinny Love”, “Blindsided”
