Bon Iver

For Emma, Forever Ago

Jagjaguwar






Phosphorescent

Pride

Dead Oceans




As a sucker for folk music, I have recently stumbled upon these two very folky but very different records, both hailing from the new music conglomerate of the Secretly Canadian/Dead Oceans/Jagjaguwar family of record labels. Given, Phosphorescent’s Pride is a few months old at this point, as is For Emma… (as it was self released in a limited run in 2007), but both records have a certain amount of timeless quality to them, thus, why they are getting coverage now. Regardless of the timeliness of this, for the record, I always seem to find the slow-burn folk records in the winter months, and for as cliché as this sounds, I’m glad I came upon these records when I did, as I think I’m far more receptive to them as I would be if I found them in the mid-summer, now that I’m back in the frozen wonder of a Michigan winter. For starters, Bon Iver (French for “Good Winter”) brings to the table a bizarre brand of soulful, modern folk that will undoubtedly make quite a name for himself, aside from his own—a.k.a. Mr. Justin Vernon—while Matthew Houck offers up his fourth full length under his musical alias, Phosphorescent, in the form of a dark, gospel tinged acoustic record entitled Pride. Both artists seem to have carved out their own niche in acoustic guitar-driven semantics, despite the ideal that the winter of 07/08 offers a debut for Vernon, and what might be a solidification of musical tenure for Houck. The difference between these two records is stark, as with the debut Bon Iver record, listeners will get a heavy dose of a sole soul with something to prove, and on the nine tracks that make up For Emma, Forever Ago, we get nothing less than a falsetto voice telling anyone and anything a rather dismal but well-inflected story. But the story behind Vernon’s work reflects his madness, as he relocated himself to a solitary setting in the woods of Wisconsin for the winter last year to record what would become a pseudo-epic opus of loneliness and despair. Starting off with “I am my mother’s only one/ It’s enough” on the record’s opening track “Flume,” tells a portion of Vernon’s bleak story in itself, one of questioning things beyond one’s control, and the rest of the record follows suit, finding his voice at odds with life’s tribulations surrounding love, loss and what one can only imagine else. There has obviously been a relationship woe or two, as tracks like “Skinny Love” and “Creature Fear” state blatantly, and Vernon tells it on the mountain, as if to proverbially scream to anyone who will respectively listen; with lyrics like “When all your love is wasted/Then who the hell was I?” and I was teased by your blouse/spit out by your mouth. Both tracks showcase an intimate moment that shouldn’t be, and knowing the story behind Vernon’s escape, one can only appreciate his telling soul. Houck on the other hand states a bit of a different tone, but manages to convey his own brand of religious, relationship hysteria in “Cocaine Lights,” a track of confounding desperation. As he croons in his own broken drawl, “Lord, truly I am awake/Lord, truly I am afraid/Lord, truly I remain,” solidifying his mellow frenzy with “In the darkness after the cocaine lights, I will miss you with no warning," Houck exhibits a different side of sickening sadness. Although it’s rather simple to see similarities between these two in a matter of content, the delivery is truly what separates the two—whereas Bon Iver’s melancholy relies more on a lonely nature that shows deliberately; Houck’s darkside comes more in the form of a resounding chorale of gloom, literally. It’s not uncommon, for a number of voices to accompany Houck’s over the course of Pride, which offers a very dismal overtone to the work—mainly on “Picture of Our Torn Up Praise” and “Be Dark Night”. However, the standout track on the record finds Houck alone, in “Wolves,” a solo sung ballad, rich in imagery, about said animals confining one to a house that they are ravaging. It is hard not to think that the track might be a metaphor for something or someone else. But with lines like, “They’re staring with blood in their mouths/Mama, they wont let me out,” its hard not to be sold, as even if this is Houck at his worst, he remains starkly convincing as he croons over what sounds like a ukulele and a funeral organ, with a demeanor somewhere between weeping and exploding. Ironically, Vernon offers up his take on the Canis lupus as well, with “Wolves (Acts I and II),” but goes straight to the point of dismay, stating “Someday my pain will mark you,” keeping his symbolism to a minimum but keeping pace with Houck, furthering his case with “With the wild wolves around you/In the morning I’ll call you…can’t you find a clue?”. Where we find Vernon in his constant state of contemplation of things, Houck seems to have figured things out for himself, staking his claim on things with “At Death, A Proclamation,” which might be some of the strongest last words anyone has maybe never said, long before their death, complete with regret and solitude. It is in this light where Phosphorescent dimly shines (all puns intended), and shows rightly his scars of trials himself. Where Vernon acts as a man in the moment and immersed, Houck glows of a man in afterthought; aged and well versed. “The Waves At Night” and “My Dove, My Lamb” are both testament to this, as the former addresses a quaint love and it’s intermissions, while the latter expresses a lullaby of youth, love and balladry in the most poetic of contexts. For as much as these two modern songwriters differ, it’s evident that the age old practice of folk music—no matter what face it takes—turns out best in it’s most raw form; songs of love, scorn, loss and reflection—thus, the reason for the genre in the first place, one might attest. Before this becomes a thesis paper, and for what it’s worth, Pride made it’s way onto a number of best of lists at the tail end of 2007, and I’d be willing to bet that Bon Iver’s debut reissue will probably make it onto a shit-ton of them in 2008. Regardless, these records are both great examples of new takes on a genre that will never cease, and kudos to the triumvirate of labels (DO/SC/Jagjaguwar) that has always been known to support songwriters and their crafts to find and release such works. For fans of folk music of any likeness, Pride and For Emma, Forever Ago offer windows of personal tastes melding with the basic knack of songwriting that is anything but generic, creating listening experiences that come highly recommended.


Bon Iver
Phosphorescent
Dead Oceans
Jagjaguwar