22, A Million
| Bon Iver
22, A Million
22, A Million is the third studio album by American indie folk band Bon Iver, released on September 30, 2016. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Bon Iver’s first album in five years takes an unexpected turn toward the strange and experimental. But behind the arranged glitches and processed voices are deeply felt songs about uncertainty.
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Rolling Stone
Brings Futurism to Justin Vernon’s Cabin.
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Consequence of Sound
Justin Vernon challenges listeners to accept a new, self-aware perspective, one delivered honestly and beautifully.
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Consequence of Sound
The album is fearless in being a temporary identity.
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Independent
An astonishing record that grapples with the infinite.
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SPIN
Bon Iver Transcends Indie Icon Status on 22, A Million.
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The Line of Best Fit
Bon Iver’s 22, A Million captures personal crisis and resolution better than any album this century.
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The New York Times
With ‘22, a Million,’ Bon Iver Beats a Retreat to Even Quieter Reinvention.
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The Atlantic
The influential indie singer’s experimental third album is at its best when it lets humanity shine through the noise.
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The Guardian
Distressed, hyper-modern balladeering.
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Loud and Quiet
A brilliant paradox as dreamlike as it is earthly; a proudly bruised tranquil gem.
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DIY Mag
Instead of getting caught up in devil-eyed deception and silly distractions, Bon Iver sound more emotionally-charged than ever.
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The 405
With 22, A Million Justin Vernon shows that his greatest skill as a performer is not simply his ability to craft beautifully original music, but is found in his knack for seamless reinvention.
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Irish Times
A kaleidoscope of sonic strokes.
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Audioxide
It’s merely mediocre folktronica.
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Audioxide
This is one Internet frenzy I won’t be joining unfortunately, though to its credit, it has made me feel and think enough to make this one of my longest reviews yet. So for that, I congratulate 22, A Million.
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Pretty Much Amazing
Justin Vernon returns with a bold, urgent, and glorious third album.
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Music A.V. Club
Bon Iver processes success with symbolism on 22, A Million.
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USA Today
Vernon prepared fans well for his new direction.
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Clash Music
A remarkable album, inspiring in its incredible overreach...
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Sidewalk Hustle
Bon Iver is in search of something new on 22, A Million, departing with confidence on a journey to the undiscovered.
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Sound on Sound
22, A Million is a new way of telling a story.
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ACRN
Justin Vernon took a risk on 22, A Million. That risk took him from being arguably boring and unchanging to one of the best artists in the game.
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Slate the Disco
22, A Million embodies being slowly but loudly released from these deep connections, the newfound uncertainty and perhaps inner realisation of this frustration, putting faith in music as a constant.
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The Interns
Beautiful, straightforward.
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Daily Emerald
Bon Iver explore dark new influences in ’22, A Million’.
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The Gourmet Bachelor
“22, A Million” is Bon Iver’s third album and its first in five years; showing a band who refuses to rest on its laurels; changing its sound almost drastically with every album release.
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Calvin Chimes
“22, A Million” a symbolic journey for Bon Iver.
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Northern Transmissions
Clearly, Bon Iver has set out to make an album that challenges expectations.
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The National
22, A Million is Bon Iver’s newest sonic masterpiece.
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The Gateway Online
The aural catharsis of Vernon’s music is unique to him, and whether it be with Bon Iver or other projects such as Volcano Choir, the emotion he communicates is understood by the listener like it’s first hand.
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The Arts Desk
Rated singer-songwriter heads in an experimental but beguiling new direction.
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MTV
So to listen to 22, A Million is to hear someone, like Kanye on 808s and Heartbreak, finding the horizon of artificiality, where it becomes something more than real — a supernaturally human sound, the sound of the inner soul.
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The Eagle Online
Fundamentally, “22, A Million” is a pondering of emotion and understanding.
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Ranting About Music!
For its ideas, some truly great songs, and inspired moments, I’d say that 22, A Million is Bon Iver’s best album, but that doesn’t mean it avoids its predecessors’ pitfalls.
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Strathclyde Telegraph
The shared intimacy is still there, but with a tangible human touch.
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Max Ruebensal
It is a strange and experimental mixture of arranged glitches, samples, noises combined with looped, synthesized or/and processed voices – yet it is spiced with the care of a developing artist that masters to combine familiar trappings with a futuristic pop vision.
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Stanford Daily
'22, A Million’ finds beauty in uncertainty.
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NYLON
West's influence is all over his third Bon Iver album which works to make 22, A Million one of this year's most sublime pieces of work.
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Hatter Network
Bon Iver’s 22, A Million is worthy of its confusion.
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Mic
Bon Iver doesn't want to explain '22, A Million,' but he doesn't need to. It's beautiful.
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Christ and Pop Culture
It seems like Vernon has reached the end of his search for a neat, tidy bridge between himself and “the Other,” and resigned himself to a permanent unsettledness.
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Treble Zine
Bon Iver creates an album that is not necessarily inviting but rather a piece of perplexing art that excels on an entirely different level.
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The Scroll
It’s a look into the mind of an artist who’s on the edge of chaos and tranquility, and it may very well be one of the best indie records of the year.
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Record Collector Mag
It’s over in 34 minutes, gone, but demanding to be spun again.
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The Point 91.fm
Vernon’s heartfelt and anxious lyrics and melodies reach the level intimacy only known from For Emma, Forever Ago.
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Her Campus
Bon Iver have pulled off a stirring and seductive new album that you be playing on repeat during and beyond these autumnal months.
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Drowned in Sound
22, A Million, when you take the time to truly unearth it, may well be the warmest work of his career.
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Louder than War
Five years in the making but it was certainly worth the wait, Bon Iver’s sound has developed into this all encompassing multi-faceted beast.
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Entertainment Weekly
Vernon fuses Chipmunk soul with a booming low end to chilling effect. Still, he’s at his strongest when he keeps his outré inclinations in check, whether that’s on the funky “666 ʇ” or the haunting, piano-driven “33 ‘GOD.’ ”
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Tiny Mix Tapes
No matter how it moves, the release can’t shake itself from the spotlight. Inside or outside, attention must be paid.
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All Music
It's an impressive feat of reinvention that manages to keep Vernon's emotional core fully intact no matter how far the music strays from established Bon Iver territory.
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Exclaim!
It's an emphatic step forward, a gorgeous album that, rather than running from it, reflects our fractured world back at us.
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Spectrum Culture
The album dares you to come closer, to peer into its depths and figure it out. But in the end, there may not be anything to figure out.
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GQ
Justin Vernon's third endeavor as Bon Iver has led to something arresting, rough, and unique—but we can't help but want more.
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Radio UTD
22, A Million is an absolute victory.
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Unsung Sundays
We’re as excited about the new Bon Iver album as you are — and trust us when we say it was worth the wait. 22, A Million is a game changer.
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The Verge
On his latest album, Justin Vernon retools his sound with digital manipulation.
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Just Direct
22, A Million captures personal crisis and resolution better than any album this century.
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KEXP.org
Justin Vernon Walked Away from Bon Iver and Returned with the Stunning 22, A Million.
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KCSC Radio
22, A Million is wholly itself, and every bit of it is nothing short of an explosion.
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Black Squirrel Radio
This is folk music for the 21st century, and it remains as vital and moving as ever.
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WRBB Radio
Back from the dead winter of Eau Claire, WI comes Justin Vernon’s most realized work to date as Bon Iver explores a dense and intricate soundscape on his first release in 5 years.
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Music OMH
This strange, beautiful, willfully obtuse album is one that you’ll want to live with for a very long time.
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Vox
22, A Million is the next step in the band’s electronic progression.
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University Observer
Bon Iver may have completely departed from the style of his early days, but the sound he has now reached is just as haunting, jarring and monumental as anything previously heard.
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The Hoya
“22, A Million” may be brief but is truly an album that will stay with listeners long after the music has been shut off.
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XS Noize
There is a certain uncompromising bravery that I have to respect as I for one like to see artists get outside their comfort zone.
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Esquire
Bon Iver's new album has a spring in its step.
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Complex
Vernon is certainly challenging listeners with the electronic additions of 22, A Million, but he is not abandoning all he’s been and done before.
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The McGill Tribune
A rich listening experience, which provides a lot more depth in ten songs than many other albums this year have managed to do in twenty.
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Financial Times
As a purely musical experience this album is striking, its virtues and vices summed up by the use of a Mahalia Jackson sample.
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Brent Music Reviews
Bon Iver – aka Justin Vernon – delivers an ambitious, compelling, and enigmatic third studio effort with ’22, A Million.’
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NOW Toronto
Justin Vernon and Co. go explosively experimental on third album.
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Under the Radar
The impact of Vernon's 22, A Million far outlasts that moment when the record stops playing.
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The Indie Sound
Bon Iver never fails to tug at the heartstrings of any listener, becoming your favorite artist to cry to or throw on late at night or during a rainy day.
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OU Daily
Bon Iver's '22, A Million' triumphs, demonstrates creativity in production.
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TRANSVERSO
22, A Million will serve as the finest dissociation of Justin Vernon from Bon Iver, making it the project’s best work to date, and if things truly will be over soon, Bon Iver’s greatest album ever. A plus.
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CisternYard Media
Though perhaps shocking to those expecting another Bon Iver album recorded by a single man in his cabin, this album marks an optimistic and positive paradigm shift in the work of the band.
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Stereofox Music Blog
Justin Vernon's ability to create absolutely stunning music seems to be encoded in his chromosomes. It's beautiful, interesting, personal, it has a lot of Bon Iver in it.
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Vinyl Me, Please
22, A Million,the project’s third LP, and best.
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Niner Times
Vernon was successful in creating a Bon Iver album that is both meaningful and strange.
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Pop Theology
Bon Iver could very well call it quits after this, and it would be a perfect series of records, but I will always keep my eyes on where Vernon wanders to next.
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Too Many Blogs
A highly expressive and experimental album; part love letter, part searching for self-understanding.
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Bearded Gentlemen Music
SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
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bandcamp daily
As much as he layers and loops, discusses numerology, or namedrops Kanye, this music has the same quiet heart of all of Vernon’s previous Bon Iver material.
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The Edge
A tricky listen with hidden depths. As a piece of audible, experimental art, you could do no better.
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Sound & Vision
What could have been a gimmick somehow blends perfectly into the music. It’s new, yet still unquestionably Bon Iver.
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The Daily
“22, A Million” is Bon Iver’s most personal, political album yet, and its puzzling, creative nature will keep fans well-fed for many years to come.
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Shanelle Wolfe
A masterpiece.
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88.5 KURE
Gives you everything you could’ve wanted and more.
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The Upcoming
His choice to make something a little different, whilst still including the intricate and tranquil sounds that are loved by many, reinforces his status as a leading alternative artist.
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NYS Music
22, A Million is a cohesive work that when listened to in its natural order portrays the progression of its ten tracks.
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piano and coffee co.
22, a Million, in my opinion, deserves all the applause it’s receiving and more, both critically and as a tool for emotional expansion and coping with hardships.
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the post calvin
I’m grateful for Bon Iver’s wandering, his constant search for peace, and all the ways he stumbles upon transcendence.
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KUMD.org
It is both a touching conclusion and a triumphant return.
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GIGsoup
’22, A Million’ sees Bon Iver exploring and collating new sounds so beautifully while also remaining true to Vernon’s core as an artist and individual.
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Live in Limbo
A unique piece of work.
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American Songwriter
22, A Million occasionally confronts and challenges with its willful weirdness, but Bon Iver can still locate that lonely cabin, if only in spirit, when Vernon really wants to dig deep.
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No Ripcord
Vernon may not be sure if he's on the right path, but he's certainly on a good one.
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