Written by Haven Lo

It’s been a decade and change since Wisconsin native Justin Vernon hid himself in a log cabin for three long winter months outside his home town of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. 

When he emerged from the woods in the month of February, 2007, nobody expected much. Thirteen years later, Bon Iver is a multi Grammy-winning artist with four critically acclaimed albums to his name, along with appearances on tracks that also feature artists such as Kanye West and James Blake.

So what propelled Vernon to the top? Let's take a deep dive back to those cold Wisconsin months. 

Raleigh, North Carolina. 2006. Vernon’s band, DeYarmond Edison, has just broken up. It wasn’t the first time Vernon has experienced breakage, but this time it hurt especially as the band was formed with his friends all the way from Eau Claire. They had come to the south to try to kickstart their musical careers, but it wasn’t meant to be. Worse, Vernon at the same time had also broken up with his girlfriend. And to top it all off, he was diagnosed with mononucleosis which kept him bedridden for three months.

Vernon felt lost. The purpose he felt which brought him and his bandmates to Raleigh in the first place was gone, and he felt his life was spiralling out of control. In the end, he packed up all his recording gear and moved back to Eau Claire. He first went to his parent’s house, but there he felt empty

He then found himself in the hunting cabin his father built years ago. During his childhood, he would spend many days here with his father. He settled down there, hunting for his own meat in the Wisconsin woods, and lost many days in thought. His father would keep him company once in a while, delivering food, but mostly he was alone. 

Three weeks passed before Vernon started to feel a sense of purpose again. He grew tired of just sitting around without anything to do, and he started to create music again. 

So there he was, with a few guitars, a microphone, and an old Macbook with ProTools installed. What came out was For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar, 2007), a nine track folk album with subtle electronic, jazz and gospel influences from Vernon’s time studying music. 

Vernon’s falsetto singing punctuates the warm soundscapes created by the light strums of the acoustic guitars, and never is the singing too harsh or the guitar too loud. Another thing to say about Vernon’s performance is that he is very contemplative and hopeful on the record. He does not appear to lash out at the world for his troubles, but looks into the future for salvation.

The album appears to deal with themes such as breakup and mediocrity in life, but the fantastical and mysterious imageries Vernon creates through his ambiguous songwriting and metaphorical lyrics never seem to tell the listener exactly what to think.

This motif of veiled images and figurative speech is seen from the start of track one, Flume. The track sets the pace for the album, with its light instrumentals and warm vocal harmonies juxtaposing the buzzing ambient soundscape and wondrous lyrics. Even For Emma’s most emotionally and thematically direct track, Skinny Love, features Vernon proposing unanswerable questions to an unknown audience.

These themes continue up to the penultimate track, the titular For Emma. Serving as the counterpoint to the rest of the album, For Emma is different from the rest of the tracks in that it establishes a very steady beat right from the get go. The noticeably jazz-influenced track has Vernon telling this “Emma” character to “go find another lover”, signalling the end of a relationship and the turn of a new page. The song then spirals into a free flowing instrumental section, with many brass instruments creating an almost whimsical sound which slowly fades.

And so it fades, into the final track. Re: Stacks, a track of epic quality lasting over six minutes and forty seconds. The track serves as an epilogue to an album which has already taken the audience across Justin Vernon’s mind and back, experiencing his complex emotions with nuance. 

The track opens with the now familiar acoustic strumming employed by Vernon across the entirety of For Emma, yet there is something more calm about this instrumental than the rest of the other guitars. The guitar’s sound is clear, warm, and the top melody is soft. Vernon lets the listener sit in this sound for the first minute of the song, settling in the environment that he has created. The melody shifts, but never leaves its original place for too long, signifying that this song may be about Vernon finally settling down.

The first words that Vernon utters using his trademark falsetto makes a reference to the Dead Sea Scrolls, “excavated” at the archaeological site of the Qumran caves. According to Vernon, this line is about how uncovering something new can change a lot for people. The Dead Sea Scrolls changed the views of a lot of people who believed in Christianity due to the things said by the Scrolls, and Vernon uses this change in faith and perspective as a metaphor for his own life. When you believe in something for a long time, whether that may be a relationship, faith or dogma, it is hard to change that. For Vernon, today is the day in which he excavates his own Dead Sea Scrolls, and he has to somehow cope with this newfound knowledge. He leaves the past behind, and looks into the future, as stated through the line “Everything that happens is from now on”. 

His life at this point is awful. The environment around him is pouring rain on him, and he stays there, paralyzed from shock and pain. He copes with his pain through gambling in poker, which Vernon himself describes as a microcosm for his entire life. All his money is gone, and he suffers from alcoholism as a result. 

At this point, Vernon has “stacks” on his back, which are causing him pain. He then unloads this pain, which describes this whole song. The stacks that are referred to in the first chorus are about money. Yet, the stacks actually refer to many more things, as will be seen later.

In the second verse, Vernon presents the audience with the imagery of a sun. The sun is a guiding light, and he twists himself towards it. He realizes that he is under stress because of this, and he literally needs to re-place, or reposition himself. The next line of the rusted out fountain gives a sense of decay, and his love has been “frozen”. Yet, the fountain can be repaired, and what is frozen can be unfrozen, suggesting that Vernon is seeking a return to his former glory.

The next section features a black crow, which can only be described as an ominous symbol. The crow holds Vernon’s keys, which are something close to him. Perhaps the black crow represents Vernon’s depression, and how it is taking away his access to the rest of the world. Perhaps the crow represents something greater, as the world is just playing tricks on him.

Regardless, Vernon contemplates this. Was it his fault that he is in this situation? Yet, he does not seek an answer, and he just moves on.

So what are the stacks? They are the load that we all have on our backs as humans. Vernon, through this song, is unloading that: letting go of what has pressured him in the past and moving on anew.

He makes one final statement at the end. He’s not a new man, nor has he changed the way he thinks about the world. He has just taken the time to contemplate and reflect, to let go and to live on. And that is what the entirety of For Emma, Forever Ago is. 

In the dying seconds of the song, Vernon can be heard standing up and making a phone call. It appears that he is ready to move on, and to head into a new life.

When interviewed about “Emma”, Justin Vernon has said that “Emma” is not a person, but that she is a feeling, a place. And that is what Vernon is trying to do on this record. To let go of this feeling, to have a new life.

Bon Iver comes from the French word Bon Hiver, meaning good winter. Perhaps in this winter, you could also find yourself some time to reflect and take something good from it.

Re: Stacks

This my excavation and to

Day is Qumran

Everything that happens is from now on

This is pouring rain

This is paralyzed

I keep throwing it down, two

Hundred at a time

It's hard to find it when you knew it

When your money's gone

And you're drunk as hell

On your back with your racks as he stacks your load

In the back with the racks and he stacks your load

In the back with the racks and you're unstacking your load

I've been twisting to the sun

I needed to replace

And the fountain in the front yard is rusted out

All my love was down

In a frozen ground

There's a black crow sitting across from me

His wiry legs are crossed

He's dangling my keys, he even fakes a toss

Whatever could it be

That has brought me to this loss?

On your back with your racks as he stacks your load

In the back with the racks and he stacks your load

In the back with the racks and you're unstacking your load

This is not the sound of a new man

Or a crispy realization

It's the sound of me unlocking and you lift away

Your love will be

Safe with me