Music Blogs

For my final post of the year, I was tempted to write about 2008's biggest-selling albums or most salacious scandals or strangest stories. Both personally and professionally, I'm interested in that kind of stuff--Lil Wayne's first week numbers, Amy Winehouse's meltdowns, Coldplay's plagiarism travails, and so on. But as someone for whom music matters deeply, pop culture flashpoints aren't what will stay with me--not like Bon Iver will.

Sticklers might be inclined to point out that Justin Vernon (who, for all intents and purposes, is Bon Iver) self-released his debut disc, For Emma, Forever Ago, at the tail end of 2007. But it wasn't until early 2008, after the Jagjaguwar label picked up the album for wider distribution, that it came to my attention.

Much has been made about For Emma's birth--the story goes that after having his heart broken, Vernon holed up in a small cabin in Wisconsin, in the dead of winter, to write and record the album's nine songs. It's a nice tale, and may even be a true, but to listen to Vernon's music through that mythmaking filter is to give short shrift to the simple beauty of the songs themselves. They don't need the back-story to break your heart.

Built on Vernon's gorgeous multi-tracked voice and folky guitar strumming, songs like "Re: Stacks," "Flume," and especially "Skinny Love" are more powerful evocations of loneliness and heartache than anything I've heard in a long time. Perhaps the fact that 2008 saw me alone a little more than I would've liked has something to do with why For Emma sits unchallenged atop my iTunes most-played list, but hey, kismet is one of the great things about music. 

I can't say I was flabbergasted when Kanye released a strangely compelling album or that Chinese Democracy proved to be an uneven listen, but a year ago today, I never would've guessed that my most cherished music of 2008 would be a spare rumination on loss by an unassuming guy from Eau Claire. I also wouldn't have guessed that his was just the kind of album I'd need the most.

Have a happy new year everyone. Thanks for reading.

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SPIN's 40 Best Albums of 2008 http://www.spin.com/articles/40-best-albums-2008

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