It's taken me a few weeks to work out why I don't love i,i. By all accounts, it's an album that should tick every box for me. Interesting instrumentation, lyrics that manage to be both direct and full of inference, and that classic Justin Vernon tinge that marks all work he has been a part of.
Unfortunately though, there is already an album that has these qualities, and that is Bon Iver's previous release, 22, A Million. Their third LP managed to do everything that i,i is trying to do, but with better pacing and cohesion. This may not seem like that big a deal, but when you listen to i,i, you start to feel like the album really doesn't seem to know where it's going. Songs blur into one, especially the first four tracks. It's only when the wonderful Hey, Ma begins that any semblance of identity begins to appear.
What is so frustrating is that the songs themselves, barring the first four I have already mentioned, are, on the whole, excellent. The aforementioned Hey, Ma is one of the best tracks Bon Iver have ever released, with its deep, rising bass and constant pad synths. Naeem and Faith bring some much needed energy to the album after the relatively subdued first half, with the latter being another highlight. The bridge of Faith makes me smile every time, a classic run up from a major to a minor that is executed faultlessly.
It just feels as if i,i never really gets going. Bon Iver have never been a band for huge, pulsating anthems, but they've always managed to find energy and pace early on in their albums. Unfortunately, this just doesn't seem to happen for their latest release. It feels so much more like a collection of songs than an album, a procession of tracks trying to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was 22, A Million. I wish I could love it, because I have unerringly loved every release of theirs, but it just doesn't click for me. Maybe it will in time, maybe it will after seeing the songs played live, but an album cannot be rated on its live performance alone.
I have no doubt that this is just a blip in Bon Iver's discography. I'm sure that whatever Justin Vernon et al decide to do next will be another roaring success. It's disappointing that i,i feels and plays the way it does. A collection of songs taking influence from all of their previous releases, mashed together to form a Frankenstein's monster of an album. It is, at times, a beautiful monster, but it is a monster all the same.
