For the month of October, I’m taking the #OctAtoZBandChallenge challenge. The premise is simple. Pick a band starting with the day’s assigned alphabet letter and then choose a song from that band.

Day 2

Some of the best songs we have aren’t the ones we immerse ourselves in. They’re the ones we get immersed by. “Holocene” has always been that way for me. I feel overtaken by it every time I hear it. Does that even make any sense at all? I don’t know. I wish I could explain it better. But I feel like I’m simply no longer in control when I listen to those disparate acoustic guitar strums, ethereal falsetto murmur and swirling synth lines washing over me.

The lyrics and musicality are joined at the hip in “Holocene”. The union of these two elements is so strong that Justin Vernon’s stunning vocals feels like another atmospheric instrumental element being played on the track, not sung. Like much of Bon Iver’s catalog, it’s the kind of song that contains a greater power and exudes a deeper resonance when you play it in the middle of the night. “Holocene” just seems to feel at home when there are no other sounds to distract it, or us.

“Hulled far from the highway aisle. Jagged vacance, thick with ice. I could see for miles, miles, miles.”