Good news for everyone thought they were going to have to wait a few more weeks to hear the next album from the “amorphous collective” that is Bon Iver: Justin Vernon and everyone else he’s absorbed into his amorphous collective just Beyoncé-dropped their new album i,i, and the full album will be able to stream tonight. This comes from Vulture, which says physical copies still won’t be available until August 30, but at least now you can listen to a Bon Iver album in the ideal environment (over small computer speakers, as far away from a woodsy Wisconsin cabin as possible).
As part of its statement announcing the album, Bon Iver explained that the previous three albums all represented a season, “from the winter of For Emma, Forever Ago” to the “frenetic spring of Bon Iver, Bon Iver and the unhinged summer of 22, A Million” and, finally, the leaf-crunching autumn of i,i. We don’t know if the album actually contains a lot of leaf crunching, but it does have James Blake, Jenn Wasner, Bruce Hornsby, and Wheezy. Also: It’s still August. It seems a little early for a fall album, but that’s probably what makes it a surprise.