Before I heard this album I had already been listening to Bon Iver and Justin Vernon’s solo work for a while. Both of their albums and his solo work are on my list of favourites, which is why my brother introduced me to this album, as Justin Vernon is a part of Volcano Choir.  It is complex in musicality and meaning but an album that you can easily just repeat over and over again.  If you have previously listened to Justin Vernon’s solo work or Bon Iver’s albums, this album feels familiar in style and the voices used within the pieces. But feeling familiar in style does not mean that this album is exactly the same as his previous work. For me, the album never lacks in interest, or loosing your attention. 

This album means a lot to me. When people listen to music it affects them in different ways, for me, I link it to the experiences that were occurring at the time I was listening to it. For example, there’s an album by The Calling called Camino Palmero – this album reminds me of the many family holidays I’ve been on, whether it be when we were on long sunny drives through the countryside of Italy or just driving up to Scotland on our way to the cottage we were staying in for the week. These memories do not mean that every time I listen to an album I remember every place I’ve been to or every experience I’ve had, sometimes certain music triggers certain memories. It means that I link the albums to what I was feeling and to good memories or sometimes bad.  

This is one of the albums I listened to during a change in my life: the time I moved from home to university and getting settled at Newcastle. Being far away from home not easily being able to just jump on a train for a couple of hours invokes needs for comforts that are safe and related to home. So this album was listened to when I walked everywhere, went for runs, in the accommodation I was staying in while I was working, sometimes in between lectures and seminars. It created a safe zone that reminded me of home. So this doesn’t affect you as the reader as it is about my experiences; but it shows you how I got attached to the album and listen to it for hours on end as it provided that feeling of home.

The album builds so well and flows so easily from one phrase to the next and then to the next until you've stopped listening to it because it's not even playing anymore; it’s like going on a long walk you know so well that you’re already at the end of it without even thinking about it.  

            The songs have similar phrases and techniques throughout the album that provide a recognisable theme throughout the album and as though it should be there, fate even, whilst remaining very individual.

Voices incorporated using contrasting techniques and by applying effects to add different sounds to add to the atmosphere produced. Voice is not used a simple narrative device, separate from the other instruments but rather incorporated as an instrument within Volcano Choir's sound. It also explores Justin Vernon’s range within the album, showing that he is comfortable in the entirety of his range, from bass to falsetto.
The layering of instruments and sound create an incredibly deep texture which is consistent throughout each song. There are dynamic changes that are both astonishingly beautiful and almost unnoticeable unless you listen for them. 
There are influences within the lyrics from what Justin Vernon has said that are from a beat generation poet, Charles Bukowski, his poems are known to be crude but also beautiful. For example in Alaskans, one of the tracks on the album, there is a recording of Charles Bukowski reading The Shower layered into the end of the piece. The end of the poem which is incredibly powerful and emotional is including towards the end of the song, where while reading, Charles Bukowski, breaks down: 

"when you take it away, 
do it slowly and easily, 
make it as if I were dying in my sleep instead of in, 
my life, amen."