folklore Review

The discipline is what makes it. Dessner's arrangements are small, dry and repetitive, mostly piano and brushed drums and a few strings, and that restraint forces attention onto the words. The teenage love triangle running through cardigan, august and betty is the obvious achievement, three songs from three viewpoints where each narrator is convincing and none is entirely right. The Last Great American Dynasty is the best story she has told, a real woman's biography that turns into her own in the last verse.

Exile lets Bon Iver play the aggrieved half of an argument she is losing. Epiphany connects a grandfather at war to a nurse in a ward without a shred of sentiment. My Tears Ricochet is the loudest thing here and does not need to be. Nothing on it is trying to be a hit and several of them became hits anyway. The most complete record she has made and the one that will last longest.