Bon Iver - Blood Bank (Jagjaguwar, 2009)

At times, I am prone to making hyperbolic comments such as "I think the world would be a better place if everyone took the time to listen to Bon Iver at least once a day." However, is it hyperbole if I genuinely believe it to be true?
With their debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver more-or-less took over my stereo in 2008. I bought the album on CD and then upgraded to vinyl. I proceeded to buy copies for friends and family, imploring anyone within earshot to immerse themselves in the restrained emotional beauty that was sure to pour forth from the speakers.
Blood Bank is a four-song EP that builds upon the foundation set by For Emma, Forever Ago, and while the sound isn't a grand departure from the earlier album, I am certainly not complaining. The EPs final track, Woods, is a beguiling piece of music, on which Bon Iver main man, Justin Vernon, builds an entire song out of a single couplet, that is multi-tracked time and time again and manipulated with the studio tool of the day: auto-tuning. Woods is strange, fantastical and fantastic all at once.
If I had to make one criticism of Blood Bank, it is that with only four songs, it is over all too quickly. That is a pretty piss-weak criticism, though. If you have not yet discovered Bon Iver, wait no longer.

Check Out: http://www.myspace.com/boniver