For Emma, Forever Ago – The Creation Of A Folk Masterpiece
After his decade-old band broke up, his long-term girlfriend left him, and a near-deadly liver infection left him in critical condition, a young Justin Vernon isolated himself in his father’s hunting cabin in Wisconsin and laid bedridden with nothing but a guitar and a microphone. Three months later, he finished what’s considered by many to be the greatest folk album of all time.
That man, who is now better known by his stage name, “Bon Iver,” planned to save the demos he recorded in that cabin so that he could re-record them later if he ever got signed to a label. However, after showing the demos to some of his friends back home, they urged him to upload them as their own project. Justin reluctantly complied and uploaded them to MySpace (yes, this album is that old) as a 10-track album titled For Emma, Forever Ago. Little did he know, that 10-song throwaway project would become the spark he needed to kickstart his struggling career, and in the coming years, it would quickly grow to be one of the most influential folk albums of all time.
In later statements, Justin has described those days in that cabin as a state of “deep emotional turmoil”, and it shows in the product. For Emma, Forever Ago, is a beautifully raw expression of Justin’s feelings at the time. The vast majority of the album consists of only two instruments – the hypnotic strums of an acoustic guitar and the haunting layers of his autotuned choral vocals. These two components, when combined, create an unmatched chilling atmosphere in their simplicity. But the atmosphere isn’t just created by the minimalist musical approach – it speaks even greater volumes with its brilliant songwriting.
While much of the songwriting is somewhat ambiguous in nature, Justin’s songwriting doesn’t aim to spell out what’s it’s saying for the listener – it behaves more like a paintbrush, using intimate language and poetic, nature-related metaphors to paint a vivid picture of Justin’s life at the time. There are some moments where the raw nature of the album makes some of Justin’s words hard to make out, but for the most part, the nondescript lyrics are kept intentionally vague, giving listeners the freedom to ascribe their own meaning while still capturing the emotions he aimed to convey. So while the album is somewhat rough around the edges and the lyricism isn’t terribly specific – that might just be the point. Maybe, if Justin had saved those demos for a record deal down the line, we would’ve lost something in its polishing, or worse – the album may have never been released at all.
