This album came out a year and half ago. I bought the record version on a trip to Arizona, I was so excited because the record came out a few weeks before the CD.
At that point, I had been listening to Bon Iver for about a year and I had seen him live twice.
I don't think I had any expectations when first approaching 'Blood Bank.' I only expecting something mildly like 'For Emma, Forever Ago'. Even considering 'For Emma,' i'm not really sure what attracted me to it. It's probably heart, it's gotta be heart.
Back to 'Blood Bank'...
It's only four songs in length, less than seventeen minutes in total. And the sole reason why I'm considering my originally harsh comments is because of the song "Beach Baby." An easy ditty, that sways with easy lyrics. It ends real nice with a gentle guitar slide.
But the one song that kills the album for me is the transition into "Babys." A stupid track that reflects its spelling mistake well. It starts with a pulsing piano chord... and when I listen to it, that's normally where it ends.
Bon Iver's strength is his simplicity. That's why the tune "Beach Baby" resonates so well with me. It had a soothing effect when I was studying for an exam. Minutes before I played it over and over and over until my jitters were set to ease.
I really like the title track. It's got the vigour that "Skinny Love" had on his older album. It's sort of the skeleton holding the bare album together.
I even like what he did to "Woods" on his other project The Volcano Choir. "Woods" is the last track on the short album 'Blood Bank'. It's all voice. I wasn't initially wowed, i wrote it off as the male response to Imogen Heap's TV soundtrack smash hit "Hide and Seek".
Bon Iver's "Woods":
Volcano Choir's "Woods," disguised by the title "Still" on their album 'Unmap':
No comments:
Post a Comment