Bon Iver - AUATC (3SR)

August 5, 2020 - Jagjaguwar

Does capitalism work? If a tree falls in a forest, and no-one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Does Justin Vernon have a girlfriend? 

‘AUATC’ or ‘Ate Up All Their Cake’ is the delightful new single from Bon Iver, and it’s one flowery general protest anthem poured out for all the family campfires we didn’t have this summer. It features a chorus of people’s crowd favorites Bruce Springsteen, Jenny Lewis and Jenn Wasner, singing the song of our escapist past-future souls, dreaming of the mountains of mid-last century in a flat internet wasteland, along with Justin Vernon, whose voice sounds very different than what we are used to, nasally and distorted, as though he has donned paisley for the occasion or lives his best life on a warped old vinyl record. He still mumbles at times, but the richness of his collaborators’ influence and the direct stylistic shout out to 60s protest songs saves the track from the platitudinous obscurity Vernon sometimes wears.  

But really though—does he?