1 YEAR LATER: "22, A Million" by Bon Iver

   Bon Iver's third studio album turns 1 in about a week (where did that year go?), so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about how my impressions of the album have changed - or how they haven't - over the last 12 months. When this album was released I was more excited than I think I ever have been to hear a new album. For Emma, Forever Ago is one of my all time favourites, and I love his self-titled second album too, so I had huge expectations for this album, but was also wary that expectations might ruin my experience of the music. This was particularly the case for 22, A Million, because it is unlike anything else Justin Vernon has released. There have been hints at this more processed, electronic direction previously, like the song "Woods" on the Blood Bank EP and occasional flourishes on Bon Iver, but 22, A Million is a drastic departure from the Bon Iver sound we had grown accustomed to at this point in time. Or at least, that's what I thought at the time.
   After almost a year of sitting with the 10 songs we got on 22, A Million, and comparing these songs with songs on the other albums, I am more and more aware of the fact that there is an underlying songwriting approach that runs through all his work, unchanged. Beneath the different textures and flavours there is a distinctly Bon Iver element that pokes through the concrete on 22, A Million, and it took me a while to notice it. Lyrically, it fits perfectly into the rest of the Bon Iver catalogue, but that's something I was aware of at the time. What bugged me at the time, and still does but I can now identify, is the presence of songs that seem distinctly unfinished, or underwritten. Justin Vernon's knack for gorgeous musical moments carries a lot of the record, but it isn't enough to prevent songs like "666", "21 MOON WATER" and "45" (not going to bother trying to spell them properly) feeling undercooked. They have interesting musical ideas at the heart of them, but the lack of development or variation just leaves me wanting. Part of me wonders, though, if this is intentional on the part of Justin Vernon and co, if this was a decided on part of the creative process.
   22, A Million is the most fragile, brittle sounding Bon Iver record, touching on isolation, anxiety, fear of failure and departure, among other things, and the place from which it started has already been well documented in interviews and features. The words "it might be over soon" that make up the opening of the staggeringly fragile and beautiful "22 (Over Soon)" came out of a state of indifference and lethargy towards music and art, and I can't help but draw comparisons between this album and Radiohead's equally as polarising and frosty Kid A. Both came out of a place of indifference, both are buried in strange, glitchy electronic twiddling, and both almost completely smother the sound their previous albums had worked so hard to forge. The numerous symbols and images on the album cover further suggest to me that this is not a work meant to be a cohesive, linear work of narrative; rather a jumbled, fractured collection of emotions and states from a specific segment in time, meant to be dipped into and shuffled and experimented with. In the same spirit of Kid A and to a similar degree William S Burroughs' novel Naked Lunch, 22, A Million is a fragmented representation of an emotional state, and when I listen to the album with this in mind it makes a whole lot more sense, if not entirely relieving the frustration at a lack of completed songs. If anything, time with the album in this mindset has made me listen to the middle third or so even less; tracks one through four are still absolutely gorgeous ("715-CREEKS" is one of my favourite Bon Iver tracks), but the middle tracks don't seem necessary parts of the 22, A Million experience to me anymore, given the fractured, vignette-style I now approach it with.
   Have I grown to appreciate this album more? Yes. Do I think it is great? Not particularly. I'm not one of those Justin Vernon fans who will blindly swear by anything he releases, but I do deeply appreciate that 22, A Million requires such thought and reflection to understand and dive into. For that I admire Bon Iver, that regardless of how much I connect with the music they release, there is always a journey to be had to your opinion. Face value is never the full story.
   I don't want to give a rating for this album, even though I never did at the time of release, because I do believe that such a subjective and divisive album needs to be experienced without any external influence. If you haven't heard it, just listen to it for what it is - don't listen to that annoying hipster at work who swears it's the greatest album this decade, just listen to the album itself. Regardless of how you feel about the music, there is thought and consideration to be had.

   What do you think about this album? Do you love it? Hate it? Has it grown on you over time? Let me know in the comments.