Review Summary: The perfect sountrack for rainy days.
Volcano Choir is the side project of Bon Iver member Justin Vernon and his fellow Wisconsinites Collections of Colonies of Bees. At first it could seem that this is nothing more than a mere collaboration of fun, but after you dive it you’ll really get the feel for it. The concept behind Volcano Choir was just to make some earthy, atmospheric and ambient music. Justin had stated there wouldn’t be many lyrics because most of the singing would be done by the choir. While Collections of Colonies of Bees is a post rock outfit, this would seem fair but when you throw Justin in the mix, he brings the soothing affects of his voice to the table and helps create yet another great, relaxing piece of music.
Yes, a majority of the music is lyric-less but the few bits and pieces that do contain words are some of the best displays of Justin’s beautiful harmonic voice. It has so many layers that you’ll need more than a few listens to dig everything up that this album has to offer. The album starts out with “Husks and Shells” which is a fairly quiet and slow track. It’s sounds more as if you’re hearing it off in the distance. This song is a great display of what the music was described to be. There is the choir in the background and you can just faintly hear Justin humming along with them. “Seeplymouth” starts off with a rather quick tempo and after a minute in Justin’s at it again. He utters a couple phrases then it’s back to the ambience. “Island,IS” is the one song that contains the most lyrics on the entire album. It’s got a really neat continuous loop that complements Justin’s vocal style very well. The vocals are colorful and powerful and display some of his best vocal work in and outside of Bon Iver.
The tracks of this album that do not contain lyrics are still very good. They are quite complex and so fulfilling you can almost taste the texture of the song. “And Bother” uses a simple note to note for the entire song but Justin’s use of his falsetto humming adds to the song quite nicely. The beginning of “Mbira In The Morass” sound almost like a broken music box that transitions into just a few words being sung at the end of the song. After comes “Cool Knowledge” which by far is the weirdest song of the album. Starting off it has like a small, low growl that almost sounds like something you would hear on a football field in the huddle. For a one minute track it sure does have a lot of musicianship in it. The drummer provides some breezy drumming while the rest of them utter their too few words before it’s over.
The highlight of the album for you Bon Iver fans will be the second to last song called “Still.” It’s a most atmospheric version of “Woods” from Blood Bank. Yes it does sound pretty much exactly the same, except that song parts aren’t as clear and there is a constant humming in the background. It’s honestly almost a better version than the original. It showcases the vocals better and with the other music playing in there you don’t have to focus on just his voice. “Youlogy” is the closest thing to a gospel song you will hear from the boys from Wisconsin. It almost has a similar feel to it from the likes of “Lump Sum.” It sounds like they snatched it from a book of the church. The choir kind of sounds like the angels from above that are just singing down to Justin and his crew.
My closing argument will be this, if you are looking for something to hold you over until the follow up to For Emma, Forever Ago then you best probably look elsewhere. It has Justin’s beautiful, harmonic and falsetto voice but it’s not enough to tide you over. There are too few words on this album to please anyone looking for such. The album itself is relatively quiet. It’s hard to distinguish anything that is being said or sung, which actually makes it a great album. . The packing is not accompanied by a lyric booklet so you’ll just have to decipher the words yourself. Creatively, it is a really great album. It feels like your outside just standing in the rain. You can hear the cars splashing the water around but you can also hear the squirrels and birds trying to keep dry on a stormy day. If you are a fan of anything that Justin has done go ahead and pick this up. My favorite part about him is his voice but I still really enjoyed this album. It shows more of an artistic side to Vernon who before this had a rather simplistic approach to folk music.
