As of September 2016[update], the album has sold a total of 629,000 copies in the United States.

"I brought in a lot of people to change my voice – not my singing voice, but my role as the author of this band, this project," said Justin Vernon, band leader and founder, who hired well-known players like bass saxophonist Colin Stetson and pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz.

The album was recorded in a remodeled veterinarian clinic in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, which was bought by Vernon and his brother in 2008.

It was converted into April Base Studios, built mainly over the defunct swimming pool attached to the clinic.

Vernon's reason for recording in the location was that "[it's] been a wonderful freedom, working in a place we built.

It's also only three miles from the house I grew up in, and just ten minutes from the bar where my parents met.

The director of the video, Matt Amato, happened to be close friends with Heath Ledger.

For the next two days, Amato drank brandy, cried and reminisced about Ledger riding horses back home in Perth.

[10] The album's third song and second single was described by Vernon as being: "'Holocene' is a bar in Portland, Oregon, but it's also the name of a geologic era, an epoch if you will.

"[11] On May 17, 2011, a month prior to its scheduled release, the entire album was briefly and accidentally made available for sale on iTunes, resulting in customers buying and leaking the album over torrents and file sharing services.

[13] In November 2011, the album was re-released on iTunes with short films by visual artists Dan Huiting, Isaac Gale, David Jensen, JoLynn Garnes and Justin Vernon himself accompanying each track.

The criticism stems mainly from the album's departure in sound from Bon Iver's previous work.

[69] In October 2011 it was awarded a double gold certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 150,000 copies throughout Europe.