After Justin Vernon came out of his cabin in the woods with his solo debut, he also came out of the minimalist confines that the instruments in his solitude offered him. Blood Bank EP is meager in tracks, but rich in content.

The two songs on side one are more in line with the harmony laden acoustic folk of For Emma, though the lead single features a full band with electric guitars. Side two is more experimental, with the staccato piano riff and constant swell of Babys and the autotuned, acapella multitracking of Woods, which became a (great) Kanye West sample.

After the mythos and hype surrounding For Emma, Blood Bank proved that not only was he larger than a single album, he was larger than the hermetic folk singer myth thrust upon him, and, if the second half was any indication, larger than the genre itself.