50 Best Albums of 2011: Bon Iver, 'Bon Iver'

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Bon Iver, 'Bon Iver'

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The second album from Wisconsin's Justin Vernon thrives in an unlikely sweet spot between Nick Drake and Peter Cetera. Bon Iver deploys horns, banjos and Auto-Tune amid Vernon's Möbius-strip lyrics, which luxuriate in emotional vagueness. Vernon's private world is a soft-rock heaven of the mind.