Audio/Visual Pleasures

At first I was a little wary of the new Bon Iver album. The single was a little off-putting, what with the airy, '80s Christian rock-inspired keyboard part. But For Emma was SO good, so I had faith in Justin Vernon and overlooked the misstep. Well, I was right to believe. Bon Iver will get under your skin, just feel free to skip the last track. My favorite--right now--is "Michicant" with all its absurd lyrics and that ding of a bike bell at the beginning. But because there is no decent video for that song and National Geographic just released this video for "Holocene," a video that makes me want to move to Iceland and be a fisherman's wife, this is what you get. I think it's a fair trade.



I'm also enjoying my fill of the new Beirut album, thanks to NPR's First Listen. There isn't a weak track to be found here, but there is definitely something about this one, the title track, that gets to me. Imagine a fish hook embedded in your chest, tugging incessantly, and you might get a sense of how this song makes me feel. Or something.