Bon Iver Balances Prayer And Despair On 'i,i'
Justin Vernon shares thoughts on identity and devotion to higher ideals in ways that reflect (and sometimes even celebrate) deep engagement with the outside world.
Hidden inside the three minutes and eight seconds of "Holyfields," are the basic schematics for i,i, the deceptively ambitious fourth Bon Iver album.
The piece opens in a mood of electronic desolation, with a spikey, synthesized pulse that recalls the early compositions of . There are intermittent blasts of white noise, analog synths and, later, portentous long tones from the strings. Justin Vernon delivers lines like "Happy as-style cadence that doesn't exactly sound happy – his voice is doubled a doomsaying octave lower.
