Finally spring! The new album by Bon Iver leads from the dark – diepresse.com

At the end of April, the American singer-songwriter Justin Vernon will be 44 years old. Will he like this pleasing number? Vernon, who, with his band Bon Iver since 2006, has been extremely successful between indie folk and electronics, is privately no man for the eye for the effects that fall into the eye. As an artist, he takes a lot of time for his publications. The now edited « Sable, Fable » (Jagjaguwar) has been his fifth album since 2008. And again it bears a comma in the name, the punctuation mark that shares but also connects.

The love story with the inconspicuous Seitlich extends back to the first album « For Emma, ​​Forever I Go », the butter -soft masterpiece that described the isolation after a great love in song form. Two became one. It happens the other way around at the new song collection: one becomes two. The travel route leads from loneliness to togetherness. And by no means blue -eyed. Because pure happiness is neither there nor there. Rather where it sits. The last Bon-Iver album was even called « I, I », as if he wanted to celebrate the bipolarity.

How was it with punctuation marks in pop songs?

Sentence marks in pop song titles arose in the 1960s when it became urgent and the love was considered magic means against social hierarchies. « Help! », The Beatles called 1965. A decade later, The Jam raged in « Start! ». The fact that it works even more expressively proved Panic at the disco with her bang « You Say Party! We say the! » That was 2007. The effect of the often used call sign decreased. Some like Ornette Coleman worked with the strategy of accumulation: « Something Else !!!! ». The Pet Shop Boys are forgave the urgency that has become call marks in their title « Sorry! ». Question marks at the end of a pop song title have always been found much more often. Frank Zappa’s « apostrophe » remained a little puzzling, if only because it was designed as instrumental.

Not many do not honor the shelter. He annoys, make things complicated. « Oxford comma », the song by Vampire Weekend, is not an ode on this in listing, because there it says: « Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma? » Bon Iver, on the other hand, appreciate the multipolar. The divisions that symbolize their commas are not only dealt with in a song, but on album length. Songwriting split off the personality on « Bon Iver, Bon Iver » from 2011. The songs played in fictional places, the mood was diffuse. On the successor « 22, A Million » it became even abstract: the songs carried numbers as the title. Compared to this, the titles of the nine new songs are conventional, just as if they wanted to connect to the magical debut album from 2008. However, a striking crack runs through the work: the first three songs are of deep melancholic appearance, while the remaining six lead to light.

Subtle groove for intimate togetherness

The shimmering opener « Things Behind Things Behind Things » tries to alleviate the fear of change. Sometimes people are also afraid of love. When Vernon sings « I would like the feeling, I would like the feeling gone », then you don’t know whether he is more afraid of the vaguities or the collateral that has relationships. The karg instrumented ballad « Award Season » is a key song, if only because the cryptic album title from heraldic black and the fable occurs in it. « I’m sable »: According to this statement that the protagonist embodies the Düsternis, his rise follows, with unearthly beautiful songs such as « Everything is Peaceful Love » and « Walk Home ».

The latter is a heavenly duet in which vernon’s natural voice and its electronically manipulated voice merged. And he is right when he sets up the thesis in « There’s a rhythm » that a common groove is needed for love. The more subtle it is, the more intimate the togetherness. At least for moments you cannot be separated by anything. Not even through a comma.

Concert: Bon IVer will play in Vienna on June 14th in the open-air arena.