#41
Artist: Bon Iver
Album: For Emma, Forever Ago
Year of Release: 2008
Label: Jagjaguwar
Justin Vernon's solo debut is great on its own merits, but for me the album's resonance stems almost entirely from its mood and the time and place of its release. I had graduated college a year earlier and found myself in Wisconsin away from most of my friends and family desperately trying to figure out how to fit into the world as an adult. In that sense, the quiet contemplativeness and wistful nature of the album was a perfect match for my mindset at the time.
Lest you think this is self-indulgent, well, yes of course it is. But it fits so well with the story surrounding the album so well that I don't care. If you don't know the story, Vernon had grown frustrated with his life in Raleigh, where he had established himself as a musician. He retreated to his father's cabin (in Wisconsin no less) to reflect and eventually, to create this record. That the record communicates this process and this feeling so effortlessly is its finest accomplishment.
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