Bon Iver - I Can’t Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt Cover)

As a massive Bon Iver fan, it was with eager anticipation that I awaited the release of Vernon’s second full-length record, Bon Iver, Bon Iver. This even meant ignoring the leaked album when it appeared on the internet one month before its release, instead preferring to wait to purchase and listen to the hard copy. And so it was with high hopes that I lay down one day in late June to listen to the album from start to finish, having only heard ‘Calgary’ and the first minute of ‘Perth’ before that. What followed was a combination of surprise, awe and admiration for Vernon and his progression as a musician. There’s absolutely no denying the album is great, it’s a precise combination of delicate sounds, from the soft coos of the saxophones to the oohs and aahs of the falsetto, from the multiple layers of guitar effects to the powerful rhythms laid down by the percussion, and of course the gently plucked acoustic guitar. It’s already critically acclaimed and there is no doubting that for many it’s an absolute masterpiece, but for me, it lacked something. I’ve listened to it repeatedly, in search of that special something that only For Emma, Forever Ago has given me, the sense that how the music sounded and what it represented was truly something special, but despite my searching I still haven’t found it. Don’t get me wrong - I like it, every song is good, and the sound and quality of the production is fantastic, but it doesn’t give me the emotional connection that I had with the stripped down acoustic songs of before, a connection that I was perhaps naively anticipating. And the closest that I can get to that is from the B-Side to the ‘Calgary’ single, a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’, which to me proves that whilst Vernon can turn his hand to almost anything (see GAYNGS, Kanye West, Volcano Choir etc.) when it’s just him - instrument and soulful voice - then he is at his very very best.

Get it here.