Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Initially self-released in July ‘07, For Emma, Forever Ago is the debut full-length release by Bon Iver, the recording project of Justin Vernon. Following personal upheaval and the breakup of Vernon's previous band, DeYarmond Edison, the album emerged after a near mythological retreat to his father's hunting cabin in northwestern Wisconsin, becoming one of the most enduring origin stories in modern independent music.

The mystique of a heartbroken man spending the winter in solitude sure did pique some interest, but his winter (a ‘good winter’, deriving from the French "bon hiver") resonated with such curiosity and lasting appeal not because of hyped mythology, but because, well, the songs are just fantastic and the rawness of what he recorded was both strikingly honest, and also quite unlike anything else at the time. The record felt like the sound of music being completely reinvented. Delicate, visceral, heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once.

Interestingly, the songs were not written as a deliberate concept album and Vernon has always shied away from specifics, in particular of the titular Emma. In the years following the album, he explained that he abandoned some of his previous songwriting habits, focusing first on melody and vocal phrasing before assigning meaning through lyrics. The technical aspects of the recording are also fascinating. Not quite the broken tape machine and candle-light set up that the rumours might suggest, but certainly primitive, with entry-level equipment being utilised with careful layering and mixing to create the woozy quality. Stacked vocals - with Vernon's falsetto became the album’s defining feature - over acoustic guitars, occasional percussion and restrained brass arrangements. The emotional weight of songs, especially when many of the lyrics remained so elusive, is really astonishing stuff. 

Then there was Resident. We had been importing the album from the States, and it was fast becoming a staple of the stereo, but also showing the first signs of having its own journey and trajectory. Three months after its official release on Jagjaguwar in 2008, the awareness really went into hyperdrive. Firstly, Vernon opened Uncut Magazine’s stage at the Pressure Point as part of the Great Escape Festival. A 6pm start. We had to close the shop, run from work to get down there, join the queue and miraculously got in. We were thrilled… Nat literally has the t-shirt! One of the other things about that period is that watching the man Justin Vernon playing those songs on his own was not only a different experience to the record, it was as captivating in a different direction. Those early live shows felt like seminal, near religious experiences. Completely transformative. The critical acclaim kept developing, the word kept spreading and then in late May, with just a resonator guitar, Bon Iver made his first appearance on Later... with Jools Holland performing "Skinny Love". Then folks really took notice.

We kept playing it. We kept selling it.

“For further context, this was pre-website, pre-socials, pre-pre-order! The way you sold an album then was you play it, you talk about it. You make sure everyone bloody knows about it.”
- Natasha

As we rolled towards the end of the year, we just kept ordering in boxes and boxes of CDs - as was the primary format at the time - and ended up in the potentially disastrous situation of receiving a double stock order. A huge double stock order. We freaked out a bit, but we kept playing it. We kept selling it. We in fact sold all of the stock from both of the orders… and some. No matter how many hundreds of times we played it, we never tired of it, or found anything that felt substantial enough to play afterwards. So we’d just play it on a loop. It showed us that if you really get behind a record early on, people will respond to it.

For Emma, Forever Ago became one of the defining independent releases of the late 2000s and introduced Justin Vernon as a distinctive new voice. The album has beautifully rough edges, with songs about isolation and recovery that are howled and whispered with stunning restraint. It is an album of intimacy and rawness, and those much fabled cabin months sure did impress something beautifully evocative into the mix. Cabin magic!

A defining moment for Resident, a beautiful album, and an absolute Sunday Classic.

For Emma, Forever Ago is currently available (as it always has been!) on CD, plus a black vinyl pressing and an exclusive “ReVINYL Edition” on random-colour eco-mix vinyl.