Talk:For Emma, Forever Ago

Contributing Musicians

I know I read somewhere that he had other people on the album, but this only lists Vernon. Can this be clarified? K1da42 (talk) 19:14, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

From reading the interview clip it seems as though he made it all himself, but then at the bottom it says that he had someone master it and a few other musicians as well.. A bit of conflict there.Willarveschoug (talk) 16:21, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

I think it was primarily recorded by Vernon alone, and then some additions were added at a later date. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.96.224.79 (talk) 06:44, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

due weight concern in Reception

i think the Reception section should be expanded a bit more, as long as the current amount of criticism is there especially from the one "C" review, to include additional praise. As it stands now, the reader is left with the impression that the one mediocre review is more important than it should be. i can give it a shot later after i look at review sources, but perhaps someone more familiar with the work would like to address this. cheers. El duderino ^(abides) 10:27, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

It's been over 2 years, but I agree. I see no reason to have the negative reviews at all when they are clearly not representative. Have removed. Uk55 (talk) 03:58, 13 July 2015 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:For Emma, Forever Ago/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Sparklism (talk · contribs) 10:50, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

Looks good at first glance - I'll take this one on. Expect my comments in the next few days. Thanks :) — sparklism ^hey! 10:50, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

First look

OK, this already looks like a fantastic article (and it's inspired me to dig the album out again and give it a spin - still sounds great!).
I'm being super-picky here, but:

• The album is referred to as both For Emma, Forever Ago and For Emma throughout the article. We should stick to one format, for consistency. I'd prefer to see the full title used throughout, especially as there is a track called "For Emma"
• There are a handful of duplicate links in the 'Reception' & 'Touring' sections, which should be removed per WP:REPEATLINK
• In the lead, He abandoned old songwriting methods... should say "He abandoned his old songwriting methods..", I think

Background

• Mount Vernon, consisted of ten members and contained saxophonist Sara Jensen, who became his first love. They broke up in the middle of his college years, but would remain friends I know what this means, but it is slightly ambiguous - who broke up, Mount Vernon or Vernon & Jensen?
• Should we wikilink Music theory, jazz and/or religious studies?
• CD-R's → CD-Rs
• After a bad match of online poker, he lost the money he had... doesn't quite scan right to me. How about something like "After losing the money he had at online poker..." or something similar?
• Link Online poker?

Recording and production

• a practice he had only just began doing that he learned from his father comes across as a bit wordy to me. How about the simpler "a practice that he had learned from his father"?
• After three weeks, he grew tired of his.. I think the 'he' here should be Vernon
• His further manipulated vocals with the software... → "He further manipulated his recorded vocals using the software..."
• He later viewed the album a victory for his mental health - who did? ;)

Composition

• a summation of his life events... → Vernon's life events, since we're in a new section
• singers who employed the falsetto register, which inspired him to use his. - this doesn't quite end right for me, I think it should be "which inspired him to use his own something something" (not quite sure what right now)

Release

• Kelly encouraged... - shouldn't this be "Crisp encouraged.."?
• he asked to do a small solo set → "he asked to perform a small solo set"
• Pitchfork is italicised these days, I think
• a darling of blogs sounds a little too informal for a GA

Reception

• It has a score of 88 → "It scored 88", otherwise the tense seems wrong (it's not likely to change scores now)
• I kinda like the Accolades table, but I wish it were in some sort of order. As it stands, it's alphabetised down to Uncut, then unordered. Actually, I think this ought to be split into "Best of year" and "Best of decade", then alphabetised. And some entries are double-wikilinked

Touring

• "UW–Eau Claire" should be explained (I know it was mentioned earlier, but not as an abbreviation)
• PopMatters needs italics
• In my British English, we'd say 'label-mates', I'm not sure if this is a typo or if 'label-mate' is correct in American English
• His summer tour in 2009 hit various festivals feels too informal, how about "In summer 2009, the band played various festivals..."?

Summary

Like I said earlier, super-picky. This is a great article as it stands - I may post more when I've had chance to go through it again. Let me know what you think :) — sparklism ^hey! 21:19, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

Hey there, thanks for all the great suggestions! Glad you liked the record too, it's an good one with a fascinating story and that's why I'm glad to help get it to GA. I've fixed most of the problems, aside from the accolades table, which should be completed sometime today. What's the current verdict on italicizing websites/blogs, such as PopMatters or Pitchfork? I see Pitchfork increasingly italicized, and I've implemented both of your suggestions, but I was always under the impression that as websites, not print publications, they weren't italicized. Anyway, thanks for the great review, should finish up today sometime. Let me know if there's anything else you see to improving. Thanks! Saginaw-hitchhiker (talk) 17:14, 19 February 2016 (UTC)

I don't know the exact guidelines around italics - I just usually check to see how the site/publication in question is formatted in the lead section of it's Wiki article and follow that formatting. My preference would be to see them all in italics, since they're all titles of publications really, but that's a discussion for elsewhere.

You'll see I've made a few tweaks to the wording here and there; I hope they're okay with you. But there's a couple more things to clear up, I think:

• In the background section, we've now got After losing the money he had at online poker, he lost the money he had, which he viewed as a microcosm for his other problems, which has a duplicated sentence. I think this needs a proper rework, but right now I can't think how :S
• ...oh, and I see those WP:REPEATLINKs could still do with removing (you might find that using the script at User:Ucucha/duplinks helps)

Article looking mighty good right now though! — sparklism ^hey! 18:03, 20 February 2016 (UTC)

Hey! This completely slipped my mind, so I apologize about the wait. I've fixed the WP:REPEATLINKs, some other things here and there, and edited that online poker sentence. Saginaw-hitchhiker (talk) 18:09, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Great! I'm happy to pass this one. Well done on a terrific article Saginaw-hitchhiker! — sparklism ^hey! 22:28, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:For Emma, Forever Ago/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

This is a "B" class article. The article is sparse in the Personnel because the entire album was created by one person.

Last edited at 22:37, 6 March 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 15:21, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Location of the cabin

The article said the cabin where Vernon recorded the album was "roughly an hour northwest of his hometown and outside of Medford, Wisconsin". But a check of Google Maps shows that Medford is northeast, not northwest, of Eau Claire. The New York Times article cited for that sentence only says that the cabin was northwest of Eau Claire, and doesn't mention Medford. Googling "Bon Iver Medford", it looks like some other websites repeat the idea that the cabin was in Medford, but none of them are direct interviews with Vernon and they all look pretty recent, as if they may have gotten that idea from this WP article itself. So, does anyone know of an interview with Vernon or other primary source that gives a specific location for the cabin? Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be any trustworthy source indicating that the cabin was in Medford, and this would actually conflict with what the NY Times says. So I'm taking out the mention of Medford for now. GranChi (talk) 17:17, 15 May 2018 (UTC)