While the scorching heat of summer was drying up the borders of the Earth, Bon Iver released i,itheir fifth album in advance, for the independent label Jagjaguwar.
The communicative and musical continuum project of the Electric Folk sounds overcomes the dreamlike dimension and experimental perspective. Justin Vernon and his musicians pick up the notes and deliver them directly to the public. The transversal communication of the American band becomes, in this album, visceral and fraternal. The listeners are thirsty for new, particularizing sounds, which give them the chance to discover new emotional angles that have so far been inexplicable.
Choruses and pianos mingle with electrical distortions and dance steps translated into notes. From chaos to peace, from solitude to communion, i, i is a hymn to the human being and to the love we feel towards our wonderful and fragile society of people. The dazzling visions of the video clips represent a metaphysical expression of the lyrics of the tracks, texts that are always at the service of the melody. Tribal and hormonal, it carries the spectators into a dimension of conscious joy.
iMi sighs in a melancholy and liberating dance. The altered voice of the first sound spaces gives way to a harmonious chorus carried by the strings of a delicate guitar. Indiscernible truths about human feelings are revealed before the vocal sounds of a woman who echoes in the distance. The sonorous electronic distortions alternate with an ambient moment and chill from a jazz perspective. A dense and exceptionally communicative piece. “Living in a lonesomeway … had me looking other ways”.
Holyfields is a metaphysical story of the race towards the personal expression of men. The “annoying electronic noises” in the background give the piece the right expressive anxiety that translates into the transience of the human life form. “You wanna go the fast way, bondend weights don’t favor them”. Vernon’s voice is a continuous and harmonious falsetto choir.
Naeem is an intimate conversation with one’s soul. The piano directs the steps of the narration. A gritty and desperate voice frees itself from the worries of life to free its fears in the wind. The happiness of living is the leading actor of a vibrant piece. “There’s someone in my head. Tell them I’ll be passing on”.
Jelmore is the most dystopic track on the album. The scratchy and icy initial notes lead the listeners to a communicative level that becomes warmer. The nostalgia of a personal dimension never reached is at the center of a personal space that is still too fragile.
The stream of consciousness of the sound of the Bon Iver is swallowed up by the greatness of the external energy, After having published with 3 weeks in advance, i,i, the Bon Iver have already left with their world tour.
The urgency of telling always breaks the canons of time.
OVERALL SCORE 4.6
Reviewer @ Maria Balsamo
Picture @ Wikipedia
