22, A Million - Beautiful folktronica poetry
Justin Vernon is one of music’s most interesting voices. He’s a lyrical poet, a wordsmith, and an eclectic philosopher. After completing their second studio album “Bon Iver, Bon Iver” in 2011 the band took a hiatus. After five years the band has returned, transforming their usual indie rock/folk sound into a notably refreshing folktronica style.
It’s a beautiful and unique sound that feels like a reaction to the best music the band has made in its past iterations. 22, A Million explores the beautiful trek of exploring your beliefs and questioning your livelihood. It’s a series of gut-busting tracks detailing a story in classic Bon Iver fashion. The central theme of the whole project: loneliness, though painful, can be enlightening.
The album opens with the track “22 (OVER S∞∞N),” note that all song titles in 22, A Million have unique typography and iconography to highlight the meaning behind the songs. The track is a great opener. It’s methodical and slow, contemplating the crisis of self that encapsulates the album. 22 is a continuing theme in the album, as is numerology in general. The number 22 refers to Vernon himself, the duality of his existence and a constant reminder of cyclical patterns. “It might be over soon” echoes throughout the track as an ethereal presence assuring Vernon that all things come to an end, and this moment of loneliness will too. There is an enjoyable irony in the appearance of infinity signs when referring to an approaching end, as though these things may come to pass but they will always return.
In terms of the musical beauty of “22 (OVER S∞∞N)” is amazing. Its synthesized beat is accented with occasional glitches, giving a feeling of hesitation. The soft guitar licks make for a peaceful, contemplative harmony that perfectly accents the beautiful near-falsetto vocals of Vernon. The horns that softly accent its bridge give the track a beautiful, almost gospel tone. It sets the mood of the album without fault.
The album moves onto "10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄" a grungier sound that begins with a heavy distorted guitar and killer, repetitive percussive drum beats. It is immediately juxtaposed with more ethereal vocals from Vernon, heavily autotuned. This track uses some of Vernon’s infamous wordsmithing. “I’m unorphaned in our northern lights/Dedicoding every Daemon,” is a notable line that sticks out in the track. As a whole the work is about Vernon’s struggles with avoiding new relationships during a time in his life where he is embracing himself and recovering from his breakup. Clever wordplay equating love to gambling abounds, but this track is not nearly as powerful as its predecessor, but it definitely has an attractive sound to it, even if its short poetic lyrics are not as provocative as Vernon’s other works.
“715 - CR∑∑KS” is all about the lyrics. The song finds Vernon simply singing a capella with his voice heavily autotuned to complex harmonies. It’s an obvious sequel to Bon Iver’s “Woods” a track that was famously sampled in Kanye West’s “Lost in the World.” “Creeks” finds Vernon speaking about a love parting ways with him. If the connection to god found in other tracks on 22, A Million can be followed then “Creeks” is the turning point when Vernon feels that god has completely abandoned him, he just wants to see the return but at this point his faith is gone. Without the powerful faith allegory, “Creeks” still is provocative in its presentation of a failed relationship that Vernon is begging to see the return of “Oh then how we gonna cry?/Cause it once might not mean something?” is the question that Vernon ponders to the leaving party.
“33 "GOD"” is the main connection to the album’s religious intentions. The track is heavy with metaphor about Vernon’s relationship with God and what his faith feels like after his time. It mainly focuses on how finding religion can be an odd, almost isolating experience. His attempts at prayer have fallen on deaf ears as he repeats “Why are you so far from saving me?” It’s a beautiful track with a mellow piano melody that quickly turns into a sad call for help with uninterrupted “Hallejujah’s” echoing in its background while a bass line and drum beat slowly dips into a sound that conjures up a feeling of fear and desperation for love.
“29 #Strafford APTS” is probably the albums weakest track. It feels a little too relaxed in terms of the album’s natural progression. There are some nice strings mixed in with some very lilted falsetto from Vernon, but the track slowly descends into some weird distortion in the vocals the feels less about the song and more a desire to make the track feel different than the average, acoustic folk song it’s trying to be. Amongst the album’s other songs it just feels like a 4 minute lull.
“666 ʇ” is one of the best tracks here. It starts out with some beautiful horns and guitar licks just slowly creeping up to a full fanfare. It explores a time in Vernon’s soul-searching when he is so lost that everything feels out of place with reality, he’s questioning everything. He invents the word “waundry” is a not-so-subtle portmanteau of wonder and quandary. It sums up the theme of the song in one beautiful, odd word. The track excels because its lyrics are distinctly different from the actual music. The juxtaposition makes for a unique track in this discography. One that pulls out all the stops and revels in being weird. Which is what Vernon is doing in the song. He laughs at the absurdity of all this soul-searching, at how what is happening may just be some big cosmic joke.
It’s clear at this point that Vernon’s album is about a great love. God in the context of 22, A Million, is a metaphor for a long lost desire love. “8 (circle)” is the connective tissue that explains this. Vernon has spent all of his attention on the wrong parts of love and known he realizes that what he wishes is something else. He embraces his loneliness for he has found himself in the lonely moments. Still, he wishes for a new love and for it to last forever despite the impossibility of such a wish. He sees the inevitability in the fall. It’s a heartbreaking piece, but in a way it has a positive message. In all the sadness and the rage, in all the obliviousness of it all, Vernon has seen great truth. It will all circle back someday, everything is cyclical. While that thought can be heart-breaking, there’s no reason it can’t be uplifting. The circle always closes.
“____45_____” employs extended, breathy horns to explain the experience of reflecting on moments of depression “I’ve been caught in fire” Vernon echoes in a sad and unedited voice. It’s another weak track in the discography, but its short length mixed with its meaningful lyrics make it a worthwhile addition to the album. Its soft banjo ending could have been removed though.
“00000 Million” is the most lyric heavy track in the album. It focuses on Vernon coming to terms with all he’s been through during his time of self-reflection. He’s decided depression can’t be conquered, it can just be accepted and dealt with. “It haunts me, it haunts me, it haunts me, I let it in.” The journey is over. Vernon, who is 22, has made around the world and completed his trek. He’s made it to “00000 Million” thus completing what is 22, A Million.
Bon Iver’s newest album is a mix of the refreshingly new and notably classic. It’s a beautiful record with ups and lows that not only includes songs filled with musical complexity and beauty. It also has songs with lyrical quality that discusses love, loneliness, religion, and depression with nuanced attitude and heart-breaking honesty. It’s almost certainly one of the best albums of 2016.