’22, A Million’ – Bon Iver’s Greatest Triumph, 10 Years Later

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In 2012, Justin Vernon found himself in something of a crisis. In the space of five years, he had gone from unknown artist to internationally renowned Grammy winner. He was considering walking away entirely. Thankfully, reason would prevail. Vernon went home, caught his breath, and birthed Bon Iver’s greatest album. A seminal masterwork, the influence of ‘22, A Million’ is felt to this day.

Having initially self-released his first record as Bon Iver — 2007’s oft-mythologised ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ — the Wisconsin native soon found himself the talk of the industry. Officially released by Jagjaguwar the following year, ‘For Emma’ was a sparse, tender masterpiece.  

Sporting little instrumentation besides an old acoustic guitar (and his now-trademark falsetto), the album made Vernon a bona fide indie darling. Songs such as ‘Skinny Love’ and ‘re: Stacks’ made needle-drop appearances in everything from Silent Witness to Skins.  

2009’s ‘Blood Bank’ EP and 2011’s ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’ only increased his profile, leading to high-profile collaborations with James Blake, Kanye West et al. What started as a solo project had blossomed into a nine-piece band, playing The Tonight Show and Austin City Limits. 

“It might be over soon.”

As touring for ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’ ran into 2012, Bon Iver’s frontman and creative mastermind was ready for a break. Asked about the project’s future, Vernon said he was “winding it down. […] I really feel the need to walk away from it while I still care about it. And then if I come back to it — if at all — I’ll feel better about it and be renewed or something to do that.” 

It would be another four years before Bon Iver’s next album. But it was worth the wait.  What came next would revolutionise the sound not only of Bon Iver itself, but an entire generation of popular music. 

Reinvention

It began with a new piece of gear: the OP-1. Produced by Teenage Engineering, the OP-1 is the Swedish company’s flagship product. An all-in-one sampler, sequencer, and synthesizer, it allows the user to (among many things) sample and manipulate any sound. Replacing the battered acoustic of ‘Emma’ and the live band of ‘Bon Iver’, the OP-1 became a cornerstone of ‘22, A Million’. 

On an ill-fated solo trip to the Greek Islands, Vernon found himself singing a simple phrase: “It might be over soon.” After singing this line into the OP-1, he began looping and manipulating his voice.

It was something of a “lightbulb moment”. While experimentation with software such as AutoTune was present from the first album, the arrangements were always rooted in live instrumentation. This was something else entirely, closer to the approach of a hip-hop producer than the traditional singer-songwriter. 

Apart from the typical layers of multi-tracked vocals, the bulk of the soundscape comes straight from the OP-1. The titular mantra is chopped, looped and pitch-shifted in various ways, the only noticeable accompaniment a distorted synthesiser.  

The result — ‘22 Over Soon’ — opens the album, introducing both its daring new sonic direction, and its numerological aesthetic. To Vernon, the repetition of the word “soon” sounded more like “two… two…”  

Numerology

This mondegreen bore a special resonance for the artist: 22 was his favourite number. An athlete in his youth, he always wore this same number on his jersey. Speaking to the NY Times in 2016, he revealed that he would set alarms to 22 minutes after the hour.  

With this cosmic coincidence, Vernon found a thematic thread for the entire album. Each song on ‘22, A Million’ bears a number in its title; each number has personal significance to Vernon. This choice would influence Eric Timothy Carlson’s design for the album’s cover, a complex web of runes and symbols, each inspired by a different song.

The Messina

Another new piece of tech that came to define the album is what Vernon dubbed “The Messina”. Named for its inventor — engineer Chris Messina — The Messina is a combination of software and hardware. Run through a microphone into Vernon’s keyboard, The Messina takes a sound and generates harmonies in real-time.  

This effect is used most notably on the revelatory ‘715 Creeks’, but it’s all over ‘22, A Million’. From the dense vocal harmonies of ‘10 Death Breast’, to the vast choir of saxophones on ‘45’, The Messina is a hallmark of the album’s sound. 

Building on the more drum-heavy tracks of ‘Bon Iver’, Vernon pushes his duelling percussion approach to the max here. The aforementioned ‘10 Death Breast’ is fuelled by stacks of pounding drums, while ‘666 ʇ’ is a ballad sat on top of a synchronised fireworks display.  

These disparate sounds — the OP-1, The Messina, the walls of percussion — all come to a head on ‘8 (circle)’. Taking its cues from the romantic soft rock of 2011’s ‘Beth/Rest’, the song contorts this sound into something utterly new. Here the wet, echoey kick drums of Vernon’s 80s influences co-mingle with the distorted cacophony of ‘Death Breast’’s samples.  

Atop this foundation, we get a heartrending bed of synths, bass and saxophone. The latter is primarily courtesy of Bon Iver stalwart Colin Stetson (Arcade Fire, Tom Waits). But halfway through the track, something magical happens: Stetson is joined by no less than twelve other saxophones.  

Collectively credited as the “Sad Sax of Sh*t”, this wall of horns leads the track into a breathtaking crescendo. The entire soundscape crests in a wave of saxophone, drums (both live and programmed), and a choir of Vernon’s vocals. 

10 Years On

Listening to ‘22 A Million’ ten years later, it’s striking just how influential it became. Its influence can be heard in everything from The 1975, to the newest Phoebe Bridgers record. Even Willow’s recent oeuvre bears a touch of its glitchy folktronica. 

It’s difficult to know just how close Justin Vernon came to dissolving Bon Iver entirely. Certainly, he gave the notion serious consideration. But rather than walking away, he took his personal turmoil and turned it into the project’s magnum opus. ‘22, A Million’ is a daring, revolutionary album that still sounds fresh, and shows no sign of becoming dated. 

’22, A Million’ is available to stream on Spotify here. Click here to follow Bon Iver on Instagram, or here for the band’s Linktree. To stream the music videos for ’22, A Million’ on YouTube, click the video below.

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