For Emma Forever Ago

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He suggested in one interview it could have been a reaction to his favorite black singers, such as the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, and Sam Cooke.

For Emma, Forever Ago is the 2007 debut album by Bon Iver, who at the time consisted solely of Justin Vernon. Flume" was written at his girlfriend Christy Smith's house in Raleigh, preceding his trip to the cabin.After three weeks, Vernon grew tired of his "self-indulgent, lazy behavior" and began forming song ideas. I arrived at the cabin in November, so there's a very big winter theme for everything when I was there. For the major touring cycle after the album's official release, he gathered together several musicians for the trek, including former guitar student Mike Noyce and drummer Sean Carey.

This debut is centered around a particular aesthetic; Justin Vernon, the primary force behind Bon Iver, moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter, alone for three months. He did not intend to stay for long, viewing the excursion as "an opportunity to escape the trap of society, to not pay bills, to play music and live really cheaply. it's about that time in a relationship that I was going through; you're in a relationship because you need help, but that's not necessarily why you should be in a relationship. In Australia, the album was eventually certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting shipments of 70,000 copies, and it was also certified gold by IFPI Denmark, denoting shipments of 10,000 copies.

His lyrics on the album aspire to tell stories, which was inspired by musician Bruce Springsteen, [12] and the song structures are unorthodox. It was first self-released in July 2007, and later saw wide release on the Jagjaguwar label in February 2008. One such group, Mount Vernon, consisted of ten members, including saxophonist Sara Jensen, who became his first love. Sales for For Emma were "slow-building," according to music publication Billboard, but eventually became a "commercial smash" for Jagjaguwar.

It became a major commercial success for Jagjaguwar, an independent label, and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for combined sales, streaming and track-sales equivalent of over one million units. It achieved its largest international success in Ireland, where it debuted at number 16; it was also a top 40 hit album in Flanders, [70] Portugal, [71] Australia, [72] and Denmark.Vernon felt comfortable performing the album live, though it was very personal: "It's weird that I'm still behind these songs," he told PopMatters.