the new bon iver album is here (!!!) and it’s as esoteric as ever, which makes annotating extremely difficult.

https://genius.com/albums/Bon-iver/22-a-million

as a huge fan, i want and have started to annotate what i feel like i could add some insight, but in many cases i feel like i’m either 1) way off on the meaning or 2) get too specific with an interpretation that should be more broad.

i’m sure i’m outright wrong in at least one case. but i feel that at least trying is a good way to test myself and hopefully start a discussion.

i’d like to use this thread as a place to have those discussions. post your own here and help each other out

an essential resource for this is the album bio written by justin’s friend trevor hagen. if you haven’t yet, make sure you read it!

before i get into the nuts and bolts, i’d like to highlight some of the annotations that i already love, and the peeps behind them.

• @TJLinden is all over “22 (Over Soon)”, but my favorite is this one:

https://genius.com/10330624

• @notclever21 and @mikemenc broke down the stevie nicks sample on “10 deathbreast”

https://genius.com/10330624

• @mskizzle on the possible wizard of oz reference in “715 Creeks”

https://genius.com/10465072

• @zachr did a ton on “33 "God”“, including helping me out with this one

https://genius.com/10269404

• @s_connoisseur is the top scholar on the album so far! as such, it’s hard to choose what to highlight, but i picked this from “666”

https://genius.com/10524459

• @Alt-Weakling has mostly been lending expertise to the SLA’s like this one

• @utdeo and @Zeniths have been putting in a ton of work on the editing end

• i didn’t get to everyone, but also shoutout to top scholars @KtheKid @Horse_MD @tbc4491 @straffordAPTS @hmbeast @awkwardo @The_David_Way @DelusedDave @WillBS21 @conneryrennoc @SlimSatey @ThePaulBrown

personally, i’d like some help with “29 #Strafford APTS”

i made an annotation about “hallucinating Claire” being a personification of his hometown of Eau Claire, but others like @autorhizomatic have interpreted Claire to be a lover

a key factor may be the meaning of “I hold the note / You wrote and know / You’ve buried all your alimony butterflies”. @Horse_MD annotates it through the definition of divorce payments, lending credence to the lover interpretation.

BUT @KellyCatalina notes a separate definition in the suggestions:

Narcissus “Alimony” is actually a flower, a small cupped daffodil and one of it’s pollinators are butterflies.

thoughts?

also, i tried to define the jv neologism “paramind.” etymology is not my specialty, so feedback on this one would be appreciated.

Yeah, the lyrics are incredibly cryptic and have consequently led to a piling up of unreviewed and weak annotations with stronger ideas in the suggestions. I transcribed the all the songs and have mostly been working on that front. I locked all the songs close to the release of the album because there were too many new users editing the lyrics with completely incorrect transcriptions and creating low-effort annotations. I’m following all the songs so I’ll be sure to hover around and make fixes and help build these annotations. @Brock, great work so far!

Hey, happy to work on this a little bit right now.

If anybody out there has memorized the entire Bible, now’s your time to shine!

But seriously:

The “alimony” line, if it refers to the flower, must be a double entendre. It seems like it’s a complicated mix of meanings – whilst Vernon knows the inferences a word such as “alimony” has, he links it with butterflies, which both undercuts the severity of the popular meaning and alludes to the secondary meaning: the flower. It’s a subversion of expectations and a secondary meaning rolled into one.

At least, as far as I see it. It’s lyrics like these that make the album so difficult – everything’s just so brilliantly indiscernible haha

I second that commendation for @Brock – you’ve been killing it on the tate front! Happy to help out.

i love u @Brock

@music @genius-editorial-board – GET ITT

(haven’t listened to the album yet but i plan to this week. will jump in then)

I'm almost positive this has to do with a lover. That doesn't necessarily mean that Hallucinating Claire means that Claire in the lover's name though. In fact, Eau Claire would fit as well, since he could be speaking of a past love FROM Eau Claire. I know Justin is very cryptic in this record but he almost certainly is speaking about a relationship in this.

There are SO MANY lines in Strafford APTS that lead to an interpretation of the track being about a lost love. The entire first verse is just describing a memory, it seems like to me. I’m brainstorming the first two choruses now, but coming up blank. It’s my favorite track on the record so it’s getting plenty of play time, but it’s still killing me.

It’s a subversion of expectations and a secondary meaning rolled into one.

love the breakdown, @s_connoisseur, re: the “alimony” referent. would love to see that incorporated in the annotation.

@Horse_MD for sure! there’s certainly a love interest in the song. the two interpretations aren’t mutually exclusive. i was getting at “Claire” in particular there. i don’t think it’s given that the love interest is named Claire or even from Eau Claire. that line could just be about memories in the area. probably a good idea for me to note those other possibilities in my own annotation though.

oh and forgot to give @Zeniths props for the annotation immediately before that “alimony” line:

https://genius.com/10524627

loooove annotations that find meaning from production/instrumental choices.

Worked on this just now: https://genius.com/10549978
Also, hinting at the tate about the production choice, the fact that the final chorus removes the lower registers of the vocoder from the vocal track has to mean something.

Definitely clogging the thread now, but if anyone has any tips regarding formatting, I’m all ears. I feel like I have ideas, but communicating them up to the formatting standard is tough sometimes, since I’m still rather new and green in relation to the formatting stuff.

@Horse_MD your formatting looks good in that one! i’ll look it over again content-wise tomorrow, but if you have any specific questions re: formatting feel free to PM me. i’d love to help, just not sure what parts you’re having trouble with. i try to avoid quoting dictionary definitions like the one in the “alimony” line, though. better to explain in your own words.

@Brock I actually started jotting down some notes earlier in the day about the Hallucinating Claire line, & you hit the nail on the head. He’s definitely using it to personify Eaux Claire, similar to how he did throughout Wash.

Just put in my thoughts on “Paramind” into an edit. Cheers!

@Brock that was actually me with the dictionary definition of “alimony”, not @Horse_MD – will keep it in mind!