Test Spin: Bon Iver

This EP, comprised of four songs, follows up the 2007 debut of this one man sensation. Justin Vernon, who is Bon Iver, boarded himself up for three months in his father’s cabin in Wisconsin to create his first LP: For Emma, Forever Ago. It was a tribute to the loss of a band, a lover and himself. Blood Bank reminisces of those times, in particular on the track “Woods” where Justin repeats via Vocoder, “I’m up in the woods/I’m down on my mind/I’m building a still/To slow down the time.” Although this EP was not recorded in a cabin in the woods as For Emma was, it still conveys the sentiment of being out in the wild, fighting off one’s demons. Both this EP and Bon Iver’s full length album should be cardinal musical components for anyone seeking to come to terms with isolation, whether in mind or reality itself.