Have You Heard? Bon Iver - 22 (OVER S∞∞N)

The first new Bon Iver song in five years is set against a theme of expiration. A lyric video for ’22 (OVER S∞∞N)’ - sorry, ’22 (OVER S∞∞N) [Bob Moose Extended Cab Version] to be precise - shows a photograph of Justin Vernon’s face set alight. The trick is in how a lit flame never gets the better of him. This photo doesn’t turn to dust within seconds. Instead, destruction’s put on hold. And this matches the mood of the track itself. “It might be over soon,” Vernon sings, putting all the emphasis on potential rather than inevitability. In turn, a jagged, looped synth line fidgets in the background and feels like it could stop at any second - but it doesn’t.

The track relies on stark, smart minimalism. But over three minutes, it bit-by-bit blooms. A crackling, scattered ember backing vocal gives way to fluttering keys, waves of instrumentation that revisit the gorgeousness of 2011’s ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver’. Strings sweep in from both sides, and whereas maybe a few years ago Vernon would explode the track into a yelping, give-everything climax, he lets the piece simmer out, skewing finality once more.

Photo: Cameron Wittig & Crystal Quinn, courtesy of Jagjaguwar.