"Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon isn’t the first heartsick singer-songwriter to chuck it all, disappear into the woods and pour his pain into songs. But Vernon poured his pain into incredible songs — they’re mysterious, evocative, beautiful and surprisingly catchy — and demonstrated that humble and idiosyncratic bedroom recordings can more than hold their own against the slickest rock ringers. Both influential and great, 2008’s For Emma, Forever Ago doesn’t seem to age, either, so it’s likely to endure long after the next decade ends."