Bon Iver's 22, A Million is an experimentation into glitchy transcendence. The album, with various successes, uses audio impurity to set an ambient for Justin Vernon's (Bon Iver's) raw and honest journey to self actualization. It is an album about seeking truth, hyper accepting imperfection, dealing with existence, and reflecting on the past...
With other stylized track names such as "10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄," "29 #Strafford APTS," or "21 M◊◊N WATER" it's pretty evident that it's packaging is introspective. The heavy handed symbolism isn't really necessarily for the listener, it feels as if Vernon is doing this for himself in a lot of ways whether it be organizationally, or nostalgically. Same is to be said about the mathematical artwork decorating the album. Eric Timothy Carlson the creator of the album's artwork in an interview with FACT explains that,
...and it's totally lame. I get what Justin is trying to do with this but the concept almost comes off as edgy. Yes there is deeply personal symbolism aligned to the events of your life. Yes these symbols as you pass them are cryptic and need time to decipher. But the obvious question is begged, how the fuck am I supposed to know what the fuck you're talking about Vernon? I get that there's a subtle narrative to the album but anyone can take their life and boil them down into symbols. Here's mine:
Speaking of which, this brings us to an interesting place. Sad Moth hasn't finished this review in what is now over a year since the album's initial release. This shameless procrastination and laziness on our end has presented an interesting opportunity for me. I've taken it upon myself to try and hybridize my marinated feelings about the album with the fermented ones. I think it may potentially be a fruitful endeavor considering that the concept fits thematically with the album. It's not like I'm pulling this out of my ass (face) just to save whatever's left of face (ass). Enjoy!
22, A Million at first glance seems to be by some sort of wacko who is being channeled by some fourth dimensional entity. It's artistic framing is seemingly stream of consciousness with it's hyper personal symbolism and number motif. It literally makes no sense. It is so specific to Justin that without some sort of hindsight knowledge any interpretation would be pedantic at best. I'll give an example: I spent time looking into the significance of the first track's name "22 (OVER S∞∞N)" and ultimately what I found was this quote from this New York Times piece on Justin Vernon
"[Vernon] has always been drawn to the number 22. While growing up and playing sports, he chose it as his sports jersey; he also, he said, sets wake-up alarms to 22 minutes after the hour. As he chopped up the phrase “It might be over soon” in the sampler, “soon” began to turn into “two, two”: 22."
22, A Million at first glance seems to be by some sort of wacko who is being channeled by some fourth dimensional entity. It's artistic framing is seemingly stream of consciousness with it's hyper personal symbolism and number motif. It literally makes no sense. It is so specific to Justin that without some sort of hindsight knowledge any interpretation would be pedantic at best. I'll give an example: I spent time looking into the significance of the first track's name "22 (OVER S∞∞N)" and ultimately what I found was this quote from this New York Times piece on Justin Vernon
"[Vernon] has always been drawn to the number 22. While growing up and playing sports, he chose it as his sports jersey; he also, he said, sets wake-up alarms to 22 minutes after the hour. As he chopped up the phrase “It might be over soon” in the sampler, “soon” began to turn into “two, two”: 22."
With other stylized track names such as "10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄," "29 #Strafford APTS," or "21 M◊◊N WATER" it's pretty evident that it's packaging is introspective. The heavy handed symbolism isn't really necessarily for the listener, it feels as if Vernon is doing this for himself in a lot of ways whether it be organizationally, or nostalgically. Same is to be said about the mathematical artwork decorating the album. Eric Timothy Carlson the creator of the album's artwork in an interview with FACT explains that,
“The songs were all numbers from the start, multiple numbers at first. So we [Justin Vernon and I] would listen to each song, talk about the numbers, talk about the song, watch the lyrics take form, makes lists, make drawings. Real references and experiences are collaged in both the music and the artwork. I was able to interview and interrogate each song—digging into weird cores—and by the end of each visit, each song would develop a matrix of new notes and symbols.”Each of these symbols has such a deeply personal architecture that they inherently exude genuine expression. In conjunction with the music it's the raw openness of this convoluted and at times multilateral symbolism that makes the album interesting. It's not the meaning that you should be paying attention to, it's the feelings that the album gives. It's about a mutual trust that Vernon wants you to have with him--it's about a mutual vulnerability between listener and composer. There's no way you would ever truly understand what Justin is feeling, but you can know how he's feeling by letting yourself fall into the album. It's communication through emotion that makes this music, and art in general powerful. In the album's greatest moments Justin has pocketed truth through emotional evocation.
...and it's totally lame. I get what Justin is trying to do with this but the concept almost comes off as edgy. Yes there is deeply personal symbolism aligned to the events of your life. Yes these symbols as you pass them are cryptic and need time to decipher. But the obvious question is begged, how the fuck am I supposed to know what the fuck you're talking about Vernon? I get that there's a subtle narrative to the album but anyone can take their life and boil them down into symbols. Here's mine:
My point is the concept doesn't feel as fleshed out as it could. I think that when you do something as ambitious as multimedia album you have to give the listener at least more to grab onto. I think the music itself does that in a lot of ways, however everything else feels like second thought. It just feels like a feeble attempt to expand the world of the album more. I like the idea but, I just don't think it was done that well with this album. It just makes it look like some psycho's manifesto. I think there are aspects about it that are cool. I think it's interesting how he uses symbols everyone knows already to create new ones and you can definitely derive meaning from them yourself if you read them that way--but there's no way I can actually know what he's talking about without just feeling it out. Even then I just have vague ideas, maybe it thematically holds true, but that doesn't mean the listener isn't lost. If Vernon is so obsessed with numbers and stuff like that it would have been really cool to see him use math technique and some more concrete symbols and terminology in conjunction with his own to explain his feelings and stuff. At least then it may have some more logic. Maybe that's what he's trying to do I have no fucking clue. Luckily the music is there to save face (ass).
The album really puts the listener into a pocketed journey mirroring Justin's own journey in finding himself. The album is impressive in it's usage of subtle ambient noise. Reoccurring implementation of grainy room noise in tracks such as 22 (OVER S∞∞N), 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄, and 29 #Strafford APTS, to name a few, adds rhythmic texture to the tracks. This is usually used in conjunction with audio clipping which is used in a variety of ways throughout the album. In 22 (OVER S∞∞N) it's used to stutter the track to use blank space in a poignant way. It sounds almost like it's being used supplementary to a drum part as a lot of the songs free form rhythm is based off of it.
In 10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄ it's used to create a muddled, slimy drum beat that sounds almost like it's drowning in ooze.
In 29 #Strafford APTS it's used over the guitar part in a hazy way like a room filled with smoke. There's an especially noticeable part of the song where it highlights a vocal crescendo into this strangely beautiful wound.
Using audio clipping could typically only be realistically incorporated as a one off out of fear of the technique becoming gimmicky, however here it has enough versatility that it's simply impressive that Justin has enough control over that stylistic element. It creates a nostalgic feel, almost like a lossy memory.
I think my favorite track on the album is 666 ʇ. This song is rad as fuck, I said this back when I first wrote it and I'm saying it again. I'm getting mad Peter Gabriel vibes from it and it's a sound that's totally unique in conjunction with the aforementioned glitchy techniques that makes the whole thing very emotionally evocative. I think that I had a tear the first time I listened to it.
I feel similarly about 8 (Circle). Except this song thematically fits with the album so well. Its pulse and steadiness add some form of clarity that's so peaceful that it makes me strive to find acceptance in my own life. That sounds ludicrous but I genuinely love this song as well.
What else do I have to say? I dunno I don't really care. I guess I liked the sample in the last track. The rest of the tracks just aren't my thing baby.
Here's the score,
Stay sweet,
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