With distorted soundscapes, unpronounceable song-titles and a divergent move toward studio production, is ’22, A Million’ Bon Iver’s masterpiece or a self-important approach to songwriting sonically?

It’s been four years since we last heard a peep out of Bon Iver. Re-incarnating himself in various other projects and collaborations has had fans waiting with baited breath for the follow up to 2011’s self-titled full length, and finally it is here.

‘22, A Million’ seems like one of the hardest albums to pick apart, fearing that there is no way the written word can do it justice. With ten tracks riddled with cut and paste lyrics, nonsensical song-titles and over-produced analogue effects, on the surface this is a mess — like putting together a jigsaw but the pieces are from different puzzles. And yet, while this third offering from the Wisconsin troupe feels more art-house, after living with it for just over a week it teeters on the edge of brilliance

“It might be over soon” rings out over a distorted loop of synths. More elements start to make their way through the airwaves in opener ‘22 (Over S∞∞N)’, introducing the listener to tear-away soulful vocals and rising guitars that build like a dawn chorus resonating against a foreboding red sky; only to be suddenly juxtaposed with the distorted dubs of ‘10 d E A T H b R E a s t ’. It would seem that Justin Vernon has at times pulled out all the stops on ‘22, A Million’ to make this less accessible than previous offerings like ‘Skinny Love’ and ‘Holocene’. Is that because the front man is distancing himself from troubled dark days spent secluded in the woods? Or is this a ramification of the group’s progression, pulling in recent collaborations with Kayne and Blake?

Watch the lyric video for ’33 “GOD”‘ by Bon Iver:

Whatever the answer, it’s all wrapped neatly together with the achingly alluring ‘715 – CRΣΣKS’ and ‘8 (circle)’ — harking back to Bon Iver’s earlier days. Beautiful vocal layers are almost mocking in the way the lyrics seemingly have no meaning and yet the melody carries it all. Lines like “i will run… all around it / have to crawl … still can’t stop it /along the fires” are delivered with such heart-breaking intensity you can’t can help but try to formulate your own understanding out of it. Trying to connect the dots between each turn of phrase feels like Vernon was writing this record on acid, and listening back it’s easy to identify its different themes on a personal level: as it was intended? What kind of brain comes up with this?

There’s also an air of melancholy here coupled with the yearning and urgency found in Vernon’s voice, before glitching out to sound like a purposeful technical malfunction. This kind of intimacy will not rear it’s head again until piano driven closer ‘000000 Million’, which feels way more stripped back than the rest of the record, leaving the listener surrounded in solemn tones until the inescapable inevitability of silence.

Listen to ’22 (Over S∞∞N)’ by Bon Iver:

These are the human elements of ‘22, A Million’. Vernon seems intent on de-humanising himself and his band through the white noise production and constant barrage of vocoda — at times sounding more ‘Yeezus’ than the folk zeal of old found on ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’. Gone is a formulaic pop-structure that flows with ease. In its place is a diverse exploration into different sounds and textures: ‘29 #Strafford APTS’ begins its plights with industrialised distorted-synths before plunging into delicate vocal tones in the chorus. Skip back a couple of tracks and you’ll find ’33 “GOD”’ at the complete other end of the spectrum. With its grandiose sound — you can hear the two drummers making their way trough stop/start tempos — the childlike vocals melding with more blues-esque tones at intermittent periods, make this so much more than what it appears to be. To be able to pigeonhole this would be nigh on impossible: and as a matter of fact it doesn’t need to be, rather left to gestate to form its own sub-entity.

So is ‘22, A Million’ an entity in it’s own right? It feels a million miles away from previous Bon Iver records, yet feels so familiar in its consumption. It’s explorative, dividing and isolating. It’s elegant, intimate and bombastic; with every detail made deliberately. Whether this is Bon Iver’s masterpiece, I don’t know and only time will tell. But what Uncle Bon has produced here is a work of art that is guaranteed to induce some sort of existential crisis. Take from this my dears, what you will.

Pre-order ’22, A Million’ by Bon Iver here: iTunes | Amazon | Rough Trade

Out on Jagjaguwar on 30 September 2016.