What emerged from this ultimately cathartic experience was the dark, sparse, and hauntingly beautiful album For Emma, Forever Ago. Everything about the album just worked; listeners could hear Vernon’s isolation and identify with his emotional longings.

Four years, an EP, and several collaborations later, Vernon released Bon Iver’s (semi) eponymous sophomore album, Bon Iver, Bon Iver. Just taking a quick listen to his collaborations (an eclectic combination of ambient, experimental, indie rock, and hip hop), and you know this album will be different.

Honestly, with all the praise the debut album received, I’m surprised Bon Iver didn’t get more hate. However, upon listening and relistening, you realize that this sophomore album is still brilliant. And while it’s different, it’s not that different.

Despite the large variety of new sounds present – dirtier and grungier guitars, plenty more horns and woodwinds, 80s style balled synths(on more than one track mind you), random blips and bleeps, metallic percussion, saxophone – there are still more than a few songs that could have been recorded on For Emma and no one would be the wiser.

The first track, “Perth,” serves as a prime analogy to the transition of sound Vernon has taken in Bon Iver. It starts with a few seconds of a breeze blowing and distant clanking (perhaps dinner plates inside a home or rustic wind chimes). Then a soft guitar progression with only a hint of grit on the peaks of the pattern enters and fades. Then a church cathedral vocal harmony joins a military snare pattern under Vernon’s opening verse, finally giving way to the chorus which includes the initial soft guitar progression along with a standard drumset backbeat.

It’s not what you would expend from Bon Iver, but it’s also pleasantly familiar. They definitely sound more like a rock band at certain moments while in other moments I feel I am back in Vernon’s Wisconsin cabin.

If there is one thing consistent between both albums, it is the excellent songwriting and attention to detail. There was a lot of ambience you could pick up from the sparse arrangements in For Emma. You can only imagine the level of detail in this lush second effort. Every close listen draws another interesting detail I hadn’t heard before. Sometimes I have to stop listening and ask myself, “What was that exactly?”

Of all the various sounds present in Bon Iver, I’ve find the most strange and uncharacteristic of that familiar Bon Iver sound to be the strange, sparkling 80s synth tones and pads that occur on “Minnesota, WI,” “Calgary,” and “Beth/Rest.” It almost comes as a little out-of-place or even gimmicky, like a purposefully unexpected turn in an otherwise cohesive plot.

Of course, there are other strange, eclectic moments within the album (the classic rock/country guitar mesh at the end of “Beth/Rest” and the blips and bleeps in “Lisbon, OH”) to reassure the listener that this album, as best I can tell, is a breakout album. Debunking any previous assumptions that Bon Iver has a particular sound or genre.

While I do find the mesh of disparate styles to be interesting, it can also be a bit disconcerting or even annoying for those looking for a cohesive sound. You can’t deny the brilliance of Bon Iver, Bon Iver although I do hope their next effort has a more focused aesthetic and sound.

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.

The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

Certainly among the best albums recorded ever, its a drifty arhythmic masterpiece of sweeping multipart vocals and heavily layered instrumentals. It is certainly an album you should take a listen to while you are awake and conscious, but for me those horn lines on low volume are like musical NyQuil.

Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

This low-fi masterpiece from 2007 has some heavy lyrics that may be off-putting to the average sleeper, but the drifty wistful nature of Bon Iver’s musicality easily deposits me into dreamland by the third or forth track of the album. Its earthy and elemental stripped down nature is something special.

Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala

I can be fairly confident in saying that when “night falls” is in the title of an album, it more than likely is a pretty good album to sleep to, and, indeed the Swede Jens Lekman’s third album is a gem in the sort-of falling-asleep subcategory of music. This album is nominally a very clear and bright recording with some delightful violin parts that, more than often, transport me into my slumber quite easily.

S.E. Rogie – Dead Men Don’t Smoke Marijuana

While Mr. Rogie is now among those no longer smoking marijuana, this relatively obscure album by the Sierra Leonean guitarist remains one of my all time favorite albums as well as a brilliant sleep enduser. Listening to this album, I am often drawn to the amazingly intricate instrumentation that is, in large part, performed on one guitar by Rogie. He sings in English and three other languages, so it is very easy to neglect his lyrical themes in favor of closing one’s eyes for a few hours.

Sigur Ros – ( )

As far as super ambient post-rock is concerned, I have yet to find an album quite as good as this offering from Iceland’s famed musical export. Its clean and fluid nature is engaging enough to clear your mind and the combination of Icelandic and “Hopelandic” (The band’s non-language language) vocals are enough to get your eyes closed and your mind destined for another place and time.

-Doug Ray

Doug Ray is the Co-Host of Saltimbocca and Escargot on WRBC (8-10 PM Sunday)

With the impending end of the first decade of the century looming in the distance, all one can do is take a look back at the last 10 years in music and create another list, this one ranking the best 30 albums of the last decade (With a sentence of explanation for each).

1. The Arcade Fire – Funeral

This album made baroque pop cool again, something that seemed unachievable after the Beach Boys fell apart.

2. Ryan Adams – Gold

Gold is alternative country at its very best, chocked full of sublime instrumentation and sentimental lyrics.

3. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

The Boss sings Pete Seeger and brilliance results; there is something fantastic about the combination of Springsteen’s voice and Seeger’s lyrics.

4. Yeasayer – All Hours Cymbals

All Hours Cymbals is an album for the decade lyrically, thematically, and instrumentally.

5. Jonsi and Alex – Riceboy Sleeps

Jonsi and Alex’s post-rock/ambient masterpiece is an album to listen to all the way through (8+ times) to really catch it’s flavor.

6. Radiohead – In Rainbows

Radiohead offered this album to the public using a “Pay what you want” system; this album is by far the most cost-effective offering of the last decade.

7. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Indie pop with depth and from France? Sounds like a winner to me.

8. David Sanford & The Pittsburgh Collective – Live at the Knitting Factory, NYC

A Jazz album of famous classical songs, it is bizarre at first but develops into hands down the best live album I heard over the past 10 years.

9. Seabear – The Ghost that Carried Us Away

Simple melodies and thoughtful lyrics make this an album to listen to again and again and again.

10. DJ Danger Mouse – The Grey Album

The Grey Album brought the Mash-Up genre to forefront and paved the way for many other artists, such as Girl Talk and Super Mash Brothers, to craft what might amount to the music of the decade.

11. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III

Tha Carter III is a Hip Hop opus. It’s really everything I look for on a rap album.

12. Bjork – Vespertine

Since the breakup of the Sugarcubes, Bjork has morphed her music into a alt-dance-pop genre that is all her own, this album is a true testament to that.

13. Jens Lekman – Night Falls over Kortedala

Soft and low-fi, Jens Lekman’s awkward lyrics, high tenor vocals, and orchestral instrumentation are a beautiful combination on this album.

14. Sigur Ros – Takk….

The name of the album means “Thank You.” Indeed this album is worthy of thanks from all of mankind.

15. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

This is dream-Pop’s finest offering – ever.

16. Amadou & Mariam – Welcome to Mali

Afro-Pop, a product of the 1990s, was thriving this past decade and Amadou & Mariam’s Welcome to Mali is an excellent example of this genre’s potential to reach across cultural boundaries.

17. Gui Boratto – Chromophobia

This Brazilian electro album makes one both dance and contemplate.

18. Sufjan Stevens – Come on Feel the Illinoise

Stevens covers a lot of ground in this album dedicated to the Land of Lincoln.

19. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive

Stay Positive takes elements of grunge, indie, and alternative to craft a sound that is all their own.

20. The Shins – Wincing the Night Away

It’s surf rock with a modern sensibility, for fans of hi-fi rock, there is nothing better.

21. M83 – Saturdays = Youth

Anthony Gonzalez’s slow motion electro album is surprisingly capable as party music, it’s magic.

22. Brian Wilson – Smile

This actually happened.

23. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

Low-fi, depressing, but filled with emotion that makes For Emma, Forever Ago a really special album.

24. TV on the Radio – Dear Science

An opus for everyone, you can dance, you can listen, you can feel the rhythm; it’s indie, but there is much more there.

25. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Austin’s music scene and SXSW are still a force to be reckoned with.

26. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Start to finish one of the most sublime albums of the decade.

27. Yelle – Pop Up

Feminist themed French pop with a universality that resonates from Reykjavik to Rennes.

28. Gregory and the Hawk – Moenie and Kitchi

An organic and pared down album full of emotion.

29. Sin Fang Bous – Clangour

This part folk, part electro, part alt rock, and part ambient album is all Icelandic.

30. Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring

The First Days of Spring is a concept album for a new generation.

Honorable Mention:
Beach House – Devotion; Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism; Familjen – Det Snurrar I Min Skalle; Feist – The Reminder; Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova – Once; Justice – Cross; Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are; MGMT – Oracular Spectacular; Okkervil River – The Stand Ins; Ray LaMontagne – Gossip in the Grain; Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell; Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend; Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer

-Doug Ray

Doug Ray is the co-host of Saltimbocca & Escargot, Sundays at 8-10 PM Eastern Time on WRBC.