When Justin Vernon emerged from his Wisconsin cabin in the mid-2000s with his debut album in tow, did he have any idea of the mythos he had created? 2007’s For Emma, Forever Ago was Vernon’s first record as Bon Iver, and it came with a tale of snowbound isolation; Vernon holed up in his lonesome cabin, wounded by heartache, quietly crafting a solemn, creaky document of deeply felt, moving folk songs. It’s a story that has always threatened to overwhelm Vernon’s music — even despite the three intervening albums of increasingly wild, bold, electronic experimentation, toying with the very forms of music, we’re still talking about it.
But now, we have more reason than ever. The newest Bon Iver release, the SABLE, EP, is being hailed by many as a bit of a return to form. But this really isn’t simply a return to the cabin, so to speak; those wintery Wisconsin lands don’t quite sound the same anymore. For one, Vernon didn’t record at the remote hunting cabin this time around, despite the similar musical architecture to that fragile debut. Instead, SABLE was recorded at his usual April Base studio, and as such, even though much of the music on this short release centers around Vernon and his acoustic guitar for the first time in nearly 20 years, it is much crisper, much more hi-fi, and bears traces of the experimentation he indulged in in the intervening years.
Vernon has never been a terribly direct lyricist, but after For Emma, he began engaging with language more for sound and feeling than for obviously discernible meaning. That album has its share of clear-eyed lyrical moments (see “Re: Stacks”’s closing “Your love will be safe with me”), and this EP sees Vernon finding a middle ground between that and the more obtuse poetry he deployed on more recent albums like i, i or 22, A Million. But in lieu of those albums’ production tinkering and noise play, SABLE, centers on Vernon’s voice and guitar, often with warm embellishments from strings and pedal steel.
And Vernon’s voice sounds lovely on these songs, especially the first two — “Things Behind Things Behind Things” and “S P E Y S I D E”. It almost never sounds better and more touching than when he’s in his upper register, especially when amidst minimal instrumentation, and his falsetto on SABLE, sounds beautiful. His singing here reminds us what an emotive instrument he possesses in his throat, which is something that the sound-toying of recent years have sort of distracted us from.
“Things Behind Things Behind Things” is particularly gorgeous, with lyrics that split the difference between Vernon’s heart-on-sleeve verbiage and mysterious gobbledigook. The titular line represents the awesome power and layers of pain, as Vernon admits “I would like the feeling gone / ‘Cause I don’t like the way it’s looking.” The swelling pedal steel is a lovely touch, rooting Vernon’s voice in a sepia-toned foundation that suits it well. “S P E Y S I D E” is similarly pretty, though perhaps a touch less immediate, its verses more jarringly constructed. Still, hearing Vernon sing something as plainspoken as “Maybe you can still make a man of me” or “I know now that I can’t make good” reminds us what he can do with a more specific, straightforward arsenal.
The closing track “Awards Season” is a bit of an outlier, with Vernon singing nearly a capella. The music is stripped to its barest bones, with even his guitar barely audible — it’s all kept so quiet, with Vernon’s rougher, lower register ruminating on dynamics of love and loss. In the middle, there’s a short burst of instrumentation, led by a shockingly supple and warm horn section. The horns do that Bon Iver thing of hinging just about the line of corniness, threatening to lapse into SNL house band pastiche. Still, the song, while less melodically engaging than the other two, is an interesting final missive.
Vernon has shown with SABLE that, even mostly divorced from his own log cabin mythology, he can still spin a set of moving indie folk tunes. Being an EP of three full songs, the whole affair is very scant and acts more as a teaser, and it’s not like every choice works perfectly; the endings of the songs, in particular, feel a bit unceremonious, and the songs themselves could have likely been developed a little bit more. But by revisiting the original getup that helped put him on the map, Vernon reaffirms what many may have forgotten amidst all the wizardry: that all he really needs is his heart and his guitar. Whether he’ll stay in this lane is, of course, yet to be determined, but if SABLE, can leave us with anything, it’s a hope that he at least visits it from time to time.
