It gets loud on “Creature Fear” and “For Emma” (the track), which employ electric guitars, drums and brass. The low fidelity of the recordings gives Vernon’s acoustic guitar a natural, full reverb that helps flesh out songs like “Flume” and “Skinny Love.” But there’s more to the album than just Vernon and his acoustic guitar it’s subtle, but you can hear bass, organ and Mellotron knocking around in the background of some tracks. (See also: Sufjan Stevens, Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes, whose 2008 self-titled album arguably marked a peak of the movement, alongside “For Emma.”) Still, nothing sounded quite like the album or has sounded like it since. Though Vernon would distance himself from the genre in his subsequent recordings, “For Emma” is heavily indebted to folk music, which was one of the primary styles of the mid-2000s indie scene. With Bon Iver reissuing a limited edition of the album today for its tenth anniversary, it’s a fitting time to reflect on the album’s legacy as an indie classic. Ultimately, Vernon signed with the independent label Jagjaguwar, who gave the album a wide release in February of 2008. The album was passed along through word-of-mouth, catching the ear of music blogs and record labels alike, all of whom heaped praise upon Vernon’s recordings. Months later, Vernon would rechristen himself “Bon Iver” (derived from the French bon hiver, “good winter”) and self-release these demos as “For Emma” in 2007. In his self-imposed exile, Vernon hunted game, watched old episodes of “Northern Exposure” and recorded nine spectral, insular sketches of songs. If you’ve managed to go the last decade without hearing this album’s backstory, in brief: Amidst the dissolution of his band and his relationship, Vernon retreated to his father’s hunting cabin in late 2006, spending three months in the bitter Wisconsin winter. ![]() 19 marks ten years since the wide release of “For Emma, Forever Ago,” Vernon’s debut album as Bon Iver. ![]() It sure seems like forever ago that Justin Vernon walked into the Wisconsin woods and emerged with an album that would make him the closest thing indie rock has to a household name.
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