Attempting to describe the debut album from Bon Iver is not unlike describing the magnolia tree currently blooming in my back yard. I could write about the colors and smells and the way the lawn under the tree turns white when a storm disturbs its petals. But it’s still just a tree until you sit on my back porch and take it in.

For Emma, For Ever Ago is a gorgeous nine-track journey filled with raspy guitars and lilting falsettos. Whether Bon Iver, front man Justin Vernon’s moniker, is journeying towards a particular destination or escaping a troubling past is left up to the listener. For my money, it’s a little of each. The strange genesis of the album is part of the allure for Vernon’s fans. At the tail end of a break-up with his band and girlfriend and feeling the affects of a bout of pneumonia, Vernon packed up his recording equipment and drove to an isolated Wisconsin cabin. The result of the months spent in relative isolation is For Emma.

“It's a satire of not only New York, but of American consumerism and culture…” Those words came from Lazlow Jones , one of the creators of Grand Theft Auto IV, which hit stores yesterday.

Now, take that quote and lay it next to the fact that GTA IV is the most highly anticipated video game release ever. Early estimates say it will sell over $400 million this week alone—making GTA IV both a critique of American consumerism and one of its greatest benefactors.

Is that even possible? Can you be both of those things at once?

Our Starbucks in the game is called Bean Machine. Its slogan: All Beans Lovingly Picked by Children in Central America.