Reviews
4 stars out of 5 -- "Beautiful and heartrending. It's something far too busy and layered to be labeled as mere indie folk...", Ranked #9 in Uncut's '50 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "BON IVER was ambitious, fanatically detailed, but still warm and poignant...", "It retains the beautiful melancholy of FOR EMMA, but in nearly every way, it's just more. More layered, more diverse, more interesting.", "Once again, he cultivates an enchanted atmosphere, with gorgeous melodies, unique textures, and beautiful singing...", 4 stars out of 5 -- "A glorious celebration of -- and experimentation with -- sound....This is a luxurious record, with Vernon's simple songs filtered and engorged at every turn.", 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "'Hinnom, TX' sets off brass and static bursts like distant fireworks; 'Minnesota, WI' blends what sounds like banjos with gnarly brass swells and R&B horns...", "An emboldened Vernon achieves a beautiful fantasy all his own, backed by a full band and buoyed with horns and pedal steel." -- Grade: A-, Ranked #4 in Entertainment Weekly's 'The Top 10 Albums Of 2011' -- "His passion for gentle synth jams comes through so clearly, he makes Auto-Tune sound sincere.", "This is the sound of a man awake in the world and reaching outward, and it'll make you want to wrap your arms around the entire human race.", Ranked #21 in Rolling Stone's '50 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "Vernon's private world is a soft-rock heaven of the mind.", Ranked #13 in Magnet's '20 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "It manages to be both sweeping and widescreen, yet intimate and inviting...", "While 'Holocene' and 'Calgary', for example, retain the same spectral beauty of the first album, they're multi-dimensional compositions rather than songs.", Ranked #14 in Spin's 'The Top 40 Albums Of 2011' -- "Imagine a nice, cozy room full of ambitious friends boldly molding an inscrutable art-folk masterpiece."
