22, A Million

Bon Iver's third album takes the voice apart and uses its pieces to build unfamiliar arrangements. Electronic processing, samples and abrupt changes in texture move the music away from the group's early acoustic setting, while Justin Vernon's phrasing preserves a strong sense of someone trying to communicate through the interference.

“715 – CR∑∑KS” places that tension almost entirely in the treated vocal. Other songs bring in rhythm and larger instrumental layers. The record's strange titles and broken surfaces sit around melodies that remain unusually direct.