{"id":41418,"date":"2009-03-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/blood-bank-ep-2\/"},"modified":"2009-03-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-24T00:00:00","slug":"blood-bank-ep-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/blood-bank-ep-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood Bank (EP)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\\\"MsoNormal\\\"\">Bon Iver\u2019s critically acclaimed 2008 album <i>For Emma, Forever Ago<\/i> has done a fine job of solidifying the band\u2019s mastermind Justin Vernon as one of the most exciting, mysterious and universally admired American songwriters making music today. Vernon\u2019s poetry, restrained guitar playing, hauntingly intimate production and extraordinarily beautiful voice all joined forces on <i>For Emma, Forever Ago<\/i> and the end result was a record more striking and gorgeous than any in recent memory. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\\\"MsoNormal\\\"\">As is usually the case with such a potent debut album, it\u2019s difficult to imagine a follow-up meeting expectations. Thankfully, rather than hastily deliver a sophomore effort, Bon Iver have given listeners <i>Blood Bank<\/i>, a four-track EP that has turned out to be an appropriate companion piece to their stunning debut album. Although <i>Blood Bank<\/i> as an <i>experience<\/i> comes nowhere near the overall effects of <i>For Emma, Forever Ago<\/i>, it does everything to reaffirm <st1:place w:st=\"\\\"on\\\"\"><st1:city w:st=\"\\\"on\\\"\">Vernon<\/st1:city><\/st1:place>\u2019s musical and poetic vision. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\\\"MsoNormal\\\"\">The title track is far and away the set\u2019s strongest and it was actually written for the debut record, but never made the cut. Thank god it\u2019s preserved on <i>Blood Bank<\/i>. How <st1:city w:st=\"\\\"on\\\"\"><st1:place w:st=\"\\\"on\\\"\">Vernon<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> originally made the decision to cut it is baffling, but has said in interviews that the track didn\u2019t <i>feel <\/i>right at the time. Next in line is \u201cBeach Baby,\u201d which is as stripped-down a Bon Iver recording as any other, featuring just vocal, acoustic guitar and slide. The third track, \u201cBabys,\u201d is one of Vernon\u2019s more impressive vocal performances where over a pulsating and circular piano riff he exclaims \u201cSummer comes, to multiply!\u201d and when the release comes the brilliant singer settles into a layered and gorgeous harmony reminiscent of Marvin Gaye\u2019s technique. The EP\u2019s final track \u201cWoods\u201d is where the short-winded set suffers. Although ambitious, Vernon experiments here with the always irritating Vocoder and this experiment ultimately fails.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\\\"MsoNormal\\\"\">It will be difficult for <i>Blood Bank<\/i> to tide fans over until the next record, mainly because it\u2019s so very short, just under seventeen minutes. But if examined separate from the <i>For Emma, Forever Ago<\/i> context, as difficult as that may be, <i>Blood Bank<\/i> is just as good an example of Justin Vernon\u2019s prowess as a forward-thinking innovator of American indie- folk and &#8212; similar to the debut &#8212; it leaves the listener aching for more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":29737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8294],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41418","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bon-iver","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41418"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}