Released: 25/03/22
How do you follow up one of the most critically lauded debuts of all time? Especially if you’d recorded that album on the cheap in your dad’s hunting cabin, with the lowest of expectations? While the pressure, for lesser mortals, might have understandably been creatively paralysing, Justin Vernon embraced it, making an album of such musical scope and ambition that he hardly could have dreamed of when he was sat alone in the remote Wisconsin wilderness. The record’s so good in fact, that Vernon named it twice
To mark the 10th anniversary of Bon Iver, Bon Iver, 4AD followed up its initial coloured-vinyl reissue with this lovely white vinyl iteration, housed in a beautiful embossed minimal white-on-white sleeve. Again, this edition includes an intimate personal essay from long-time fan Phoebe Bridgers, recalling how the “massive, sprawling, unbelievably complex” album brings about both yearning for yesterday, contentment for the present, and collective hope for the future.
A record so good, then, that you might want to buy it twice.