Bon Iver: Blood Bank (Jagjaguwar)

11:19 | Thursday December 18, 2008

If 2008 was the breakthrough year for Bon Iver, 2009 should be the year that confirms his longevity as a singer-songwriter.

Much has been made of frontman Justin Vernon’s debut album For Emma, Forever Ago; a folk gem self-recorded in a remote cabin in the woods of Wisconsin that was crowned Rough Trade and Observer Music Monthly best album of 2008.

Imagery of winter and solitude ran through the album like silver thread and came to define Bon Iver as the lumberjack troubadour.

But, following a deal with Jagjaguwar in the US and 4AD in the UK, the new material on Blood Bank has pumped new life into Bon Iver’s music catalogue.

Piano, slide guitar and haunting vocoder effects combine to make this four track EP an assailant on the senses.

title track Blood Bank is the most conventional sounding on the EP, drawing similarities with Nick Drake, while tracks Babys and Woods experiment with layered sounds and drawn out compositions.

Vernon masters some beautiful arrangements and produces twinkling, stripped-down folk songs that are not gimmicky despite the secluded-cabin cliché.