One of 2011’s most absorbing, affecting and downright brilliant LPs.
Whatever maudlin magic musician Justin Vernon found in the remoteness of rural Wisconsin come the close of 2006 and the dawn of 2007 – made devastatingly real on his debut LP as Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago – it’s something that many another artist has been trying to conjure since. Dispatch a band into isolation today, to cajole those creative juices, and inevitably some plucky press type will label them as "doing a Bon Iver". The album’s impact on today’s indie-folk scene, and beyond, was powerful, and global commercial success was the unlikely culmination of Vernon’s catharsis following the break-up of both his previous band and a relationship.