Bon Iver is a Wisconsinese band formed by Justin Vernon in 2006. They debuted their album: “For Emma, Forever Ago” the following year. That album made its claim to fame in the way that it was made. Vernon moved himself into a secluded cabin in the woods during an incredibly difficult time in his life and wrote, recorded and produced the entire album by himself.
The album in of itself set the stage for indie music for the next decade. The songs on the album provide such insight into what Vernon was going through, and it had this sort of down-to-earth feeling to it.
The band would go on to release their next album titled “Bon Iver” in 2011, which solidified the band as a sensation. This album was met with the same, if not more, acclaim than their last. Bon Iver went on to win two grammies for this album, one for best new artist and one for best alternative album.
Vernon stepped away from the band temporarily in 2012 because he thought the band was getting too big. After he stepped away, Bon Iver became an international sensation. How did that happen? In his time off, Justin Vernon used the Band’s name in collaborations with internationally known artist Kanye West on three of his albums, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” “Watch The Throne” and “Yeezus,” all three of which were wildly successful commercially.
Bon Iver was specifically listed as a featured artist in the title of a few of the songs from “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” which led to them exploding in popularity again, this time attracting the hip hop crowd. Vernon would end up taking the R&B influence he garnered from working with Kanye to Bon Iver’s future projects.
After Vernon’s time away, the band got back together and released their best album yet: “22, A Million” in 2016. It was listed as “best new music” by Pitchfork and “best of the decade” by Rolling Stone.
This album was a hard shift from their last two in the sense that they shifted from an acoustic sound to more of an electronic sound. A key part of this album is the modulation of Vernon’s voice, which he used as a primary instrument throughout the whole thing. The greatest thing about it was that it still felt like a Bon Iver album, even though it was a completely different sound than they usually make.
After this album was released, people began comparing its influence to Radiohead’s “Kid A” in the sense that it maintained the band’s identity while pushing the boundaries of their genre. Since “22, A Million” was released, electronics are more often used on an album than they are not.
After the success of Bon Iver, Vernon would make one more album, titled “I, I” before stepping away from the band in a similar fashion to how he did just seven years ago after their self-titled album was released. “I, I” did not see as much acclaim as their last three, but Bon Iver was big enough at this point for it to still be a big deal.
Their latest album, titled “sable, fable” was released in May of 2025, nearly six years after their last album was released. Vernon has said publicly that this album would be the last Bon Iver album for the foreseeable future, and while it is sad, their influence will be potent in music for all of time.
