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Bon Iver Delves into God and Climate Change on New Singles from Their Album "i,i"

They also released the album's track list and two lyric videos.

Bon Iver

Bon Iver is returning with their fourth studio album, i,i, to be released in August. In anticipation, they've released two singles, "Faith" and "Jelmore."

This comes on the heels of two previous releases—the sparkling, electric "Hey Ma" and the more abstract "U (Man Like)" (feat. Moses Sumney). To create i,i, Justin Vernon amassed some of music's best architects of visionary folk-pop, including features from James Blake, The National's Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Velvet Negroni, Marta Salogni, and many more.

So far, the existent singles have blended recollections of Justin Vernon's folkier "Holocene" days mixed with some of the electronic experimentation from 2016's visionary 22, A Million. True to form, though his stylistic choices have changed, Vernon continues to set himself apart from the rest with his ability to evoke specific emotions and scenes with abstract words and unconventional arrangements. In a way, he uses his voice and his lyrics as another instrument; and, like a cello or a guitar, it doesn't deliver sentences that have meaning in a literal sense but instead manages to touch on a more spiritual, universal plane.

Whereas these emotions were almost always fraught in his earlier compositions—from For Emma, Forever Ago's desperate gloom to 22, A Million's panicked ecstasy—"Faith" is all about joy. It's a pure-hearted, gleaming tune that brushes close to pop in its glossy cohesiveness. Beginning with a synth that sounds like sunlight streaming through a window in the morning, it crescendos into waves of droning bass and delicate guitar. "We have to know that faith declines," sings Vernon over a choir of angelic backing vocals. "I'm not all out of mine."

Bon Iver - Faith - Official Lyric Videowww.youtube.com

"Jelmore," on the other hand, is a starkly pessimistic song that directly contrasts "Faith." Over a disorienting loop of woodwinds, Vernon delivers a clear warning about climate change. "We'll all be gone by the falling light," he says. "How long / will you disregard the heat?" Just like any climate report, it's somewhat difficult to listen to, with its offhand mentions of gas masks and general feelings of abandonment and because the message it delivers is almost too blindingly disconcerting to look at full-on.

Bon Iver - Jelmore - Official Lyric Videowww.youtube.com

These two songs, with their opposing perspectives, present the spectrum of the modern human experience, in all its euphoria and pain. That may be the purpose of i,i: So far, it seems to be about universal experiences and connection to something much greater than oneself, be it God or the suffering planet or both.

The album's tracklist is below:

o1. 'Yi'

02. 'iMi'

03. 'We'

04. 'Holyfields,'

05. 'Hey, Ma'

06. 'U (Man Like)'

07. 'Naeem'

08. 'Jelmore'

09. 'Faith'

10. 'Marion'

11. 'Salem'

12. 'Sh'Diah'

13. 'RABi'

Judging by these song names, it seems that Vernon is continuing along the religious themes he began to traverse in 22, A Million—only this time, perhaps in a less hectic way. Whereas that album was all about mashing abstract sounds and disparate symbolism into chaotic, collage-like hymns, it seems that i,i will be slower and more meditative, more of a brew than a zombie-like patchwork.

A press release for the album explained that, actually, i,i represents the completion of a cycle of seasons, which is perhaps the source of its more reflective qualities. "From the winter of For Emma, Forever Ago came the frenetic spring of Bon Iver, Bon Iver, and the unhinged summer of 22, A Million. Now, fall arrives early with i,i," the release read.

Though it may represent the conclusion of a calendar year, i,i also seems to represent a new chapter of Vernon's understanding of life. If 22, A Million saw God through a kaleidoscope, i,i seems set on removing all blinders and lenses and looking over the big picture, as if from above. Vernon also affirmed this in an interview. "It feels like when you get through all this life, when the sun starts to set, and what happens is you start gaining perspective," he said. "And then you can put that perspective into more honest, generous work."

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The National Returns with "I Am Easy To Find"

The band's eighth studio album is as heavy as you'd expect a National album to be, but adds a layer of softness to their cinematically-heavy indie rock.

To listen to I Am Easy To Find is to hear The National opening their world a little more.

The National's body of work embraces a cinematic heaviness, seeking shelter in a life filled with doubt and sadness; there's always a sense of reckoning, for better and worse, that pushes the stakes of each album in their discography higher and higher. But I Am Easy To Find feels more present in its focus than a National album has in years. Produced in a collaboration with director Mike Mills that also yielded a short film starring Alicia Vikander, the album directly confronts the ways distance, both physical and emotional, frays the strongest love. "I'm learning to lie in the quiet light / while I watch the sky go from black to gray / learning how not to die," frontman Matt Berninger intones on "Quiet Light," and learning how not to die becomes the album's pulse. It's a melancholy race against time, taking stock of what's important in life while they still can.

I Am Easy To Find marries The National's dark indie rock with an orchestral verve, experimenting with the urgency the sound of strings lends a piece of music. The personal and exhaustive lyricism meshes well with the vivid soundscape, underscoring the album's emphasis on the present. "You Had Your Soul With You" and "Hairpin Turns" envision different faltering relationships, ranging from regret and guilt to impassioned, indignant heartbreak. The ballad-like "Not In Kansas" lives up to its iconic name, tracing what makes a life worth living with soft and excoriating imagery, while leaner tracks like "Where Is Her Head" and "Dust Swirls In Strange Light" play with pure sensation to indicate a thematic path. "Rylan," towards the end of the album, does this most explicitly in a plea to a child to grasp as much as life as they can, a plea that ends up sounding like a warning. The National does their best work giving uncertain answers, promising no happy ending but assuring the listener that a happy ending is still worth wanting.

Maybe the most fascinating aspect of the album is the conscious way it takes the shape of a conversation—or a series of conversations—between Berninger's deep baritone voice and the various female collaborators featured on the album. Gail Ann Dorsey, Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan, Mina Tandle and more—accomplished artists and collaborators in their own right—appear as featured vocalists throughout the album, singing with and responding to Berninger's voice laid-bare. The lyrics plumb the depths of uncertainty and heartbreak, set against the sound's magnetic score, but this sense of communication, of genuine emotional exchange, grounds the album's ambition in something real. "Oblivions" and "The Pull of You," especially, use their central duets to try to bridge the chasm between the promises lovers make and what it takes to keep that love alive. This pairing of male and female vocals on a majority of the songs invoke a vast swath of narrative possibility—partners, parents, a generous breadth of perspective—but, most importantly, it allows The National to tell a more fleshed-out story.

The album's title track comes off like a bitter lullaby, a love poem tinged by cynicism: "I'm not going anywhere / Who do I think I'm kidding? / I'm still standing in the same place / Where you left me standing." But the refrain, and the album's title shouldn't be seen as giving up. It's perhaps best understood as a reassurance that whatever imperfect humanity gets in the way, the love that's built between two people is still worth salvaging. I Am Easy To Find is literal in its location and restorative in its commitment; it's a love story where understanding, rather than happily-ever-after, is an acceptable ending.

I Am Easy to Find

Matthew Apadula is a writer and music critic from New York. His work has previously appeared on GIGsoup Music and in Drunk in a Midnight Choir. Find him on Twitter @imdoingmybest.

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