Justin Vernon is back at it with another hit album. “i,i” has bursts of emotion along with some sappy songs. The album is about being at peace with the everyday life. The songs are somewhat similar, but there are a few hits.
“Naeem” in particular, is the most interesting piece on the album. It starts slow and simple, making it seem like it’s similar to most of his songs; however, it’s not. There’s a break in the song and there’s an instrumental build, creating a powerful piece. It’s unlike any of their songs, which was enjoyable because it is fresh and unexpected.
There are some songs like “We,” that give me the urge to skip. It was boring and there was no climax in the song. “Sh’Diah,” is also yawn worthy but has a nice meditation/religious vibe to it.
Vernon shows his shouty falsetto throughout the entire album, which is enjoyable but nothing new. A lot of these songs have potential but never really met their standards compared to past albums. The album is still good, but they could have taken more risks and gone above and beyond.
Some of their covers were better than a few of these songs. For example, the opening to the album, “Yi,” is just a conversation between the band members which is irrelevant, and that space could have been used for a better song.
“RABi,” is the closing song that sounds like the rest of the album, which should have been a bigger finale.
In total, the songs that did well on this album are so good that they balance out the boring, repetitive songs. It’s overall a decent album because it sounds like their others. I rate this a three out of five stars because of the theme of the album, but it wasn’t their best work.