Lump Sum

I’ve been listening to a lot of Bon Iver the past week weeks. Actually, it’s probably holier and truer to say I’ve been listening to nothing but Bon Iver the past few weeks.

I was here. I sang then, and I’m singing now, again, again, and again.

Last week I told my friend and Eaux Claire’s companion Kristin that my favourite Bon Iver song is Lump Sum, and she was surprised to hear it’s not Skinny Love, or re:Stacks (her current jam.)

I’ve listened to For Emma, Forever Ago roughly three times a week since its release in 2008, and I know Lump Sum is an unconventional choice.

It doesn’t have the cathartic pleas of Skinny Love, or the melancholic reflection of Re: Stacks, or the story telling of Blood Bank, or the blooming intricacies of Holocene.

Skinny Love is a howl that crawls from your throat and bursts from your body. Lump Sum is a song that sticks in your blood stream.

It begins with church-like hymns, then bursts into an insistent heartbeat.

It’s driving, steady and urgent. It holds, carries you under its weight, doesn’t crack.

Foot tap over foot stomp. Rhythm over lead. Bend over break.

So the story goes.