Excursions

Artist: Bon Iver
Album: For Emma, Forever Ago
Year: 2007

It’s an odd thing to post a song like this. Bon Iver makes music that is so incredibly personal that the only way to truly describe it to someone else requires sharing some of your most sincere feelings.

Sam and I were lucky enough to be able to see Bon Iver — né Justin Vernon — in concert several times last year. On the first occasion, he was relatively unknown. Just him and his guitar, playing a short opening set. His music was so gorgeous that we were in disbelief at the light crowd milling around. Most people waited at the bar downstairs for the main act to come on. On the second occasion, his popularity had exploded. He headlined the show and played to a packed, but utterly silent and rapt audience. It was no less than he deserved, and possibly the best concert I went to last year, but after endless hours spent listening to “For Emma, Forever Ago” alone on headphones and losing myself in its beauty, sharing the experience with hundreds of other people was jarring. Like watching a childhood video and seeing a crowd of strangers barge into the flickering image of me, my brother and sister careening down the slip-n-slide into the inflatable pool in the back yard.

So what to say of “Re: Stacks”? Much has been made of the isolation which led Justin Vernon to create the album, and this track is an excellent example of why. For me, it opens up a huge mix of emotions and memories, most of which I’m not inclined to publish on a blog. Maybe it’s enough to simply quote the last verse of the song, my favourite from the album:

“This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization
It’s the sound of the unlocking and the lift away
Your love will be
Safe with me”