It feels like a lifetime ago that Justin Vernon sequestered to his father’s rural Wisconsin cabin to make Bon Iver’s debut album, the seminal For Emma, Forever Ago. That album is a testament to Vernon’s near-unmatched ability to make devastating folk songs that sound like nothing else and established the project as an indie folk mainstay. It would have been easy for Vernon to coast on that sound for years, but with each subsequent release, he made a point to reimagine what Bon Iver could be. SABLE, fABLE, their fifth album in nearly 20 years, strips the band’s sound down to the core and rebuilds it into a streamlined structure. Pulling from his usual influences while expanding his reach deeper into R&B, soul, soft rock, and country, Vernon has created a record that forgoes much of his idiosyncratic trademarks in favor of a more lucid palette, one that radiates a warmth his music often shies away from.
Bon Iver released the three songs that make up the SABLE, portion of the album as a standalone EP in 2024. Each track reaffirmed Vernon’s gift for distilling his ideas into stripped-down, emotionally driven compositions, but as a standalone EP, it felt incomplete. The barebones offerings originally seem miles apart from their fABLE counterparts, but in the context of the full album, SABLE, suddenly makes a lot more sense. The hint of a pedal steel guitar on opener “THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS” or the murmur of strings on “S P E Y S I D E” become suggestions of what lies ahead. As the beautifully stark “AWARDS SEASON” dissolves into “Short Story”, the album explodes into full technicolor. “Oh, the vibrance!” Vernon exclaims as the curtain lifts and the real show begins. It’s a stunning opener to disc 2 and captures that particular type of majesty only Bon Iver can create.
Despite its dialed-back technical trickery, SABLE, fABLE is immediately recognizable as a Bon Iver record; Vernon’s uncanny ability to write melodies and hooks in subversive ways remains intact. Perhaps the clearest example is the highlight “Everything Is Peaceful Love”, where Vernon’s ascending vocals create one of Bon Iver’s best earworms to date. It’s a joyous and hopeful song and somehow nestles perfectly into a discography that rarely elicits such emotions. “There’s a Rhythmn” soothes like a balm on damaged skin, serving as the literal beating heart of the record with its steady pulse of percussion over a nostalgic keyboard riff reminiscent of the soaring guitars on “Strangest Thing” from The War on Drugs’ acclaimed album A Deeper Understanding.
The album’s production sews together a patchwork of sounds that are hard to pinpoint yet strangely familiar. “Day One” embraces this aspect through its kaleidoscopic arrangement and two additional guest vocalists. It plays out like a group of friends performing at the most intimidating karaoke session you’ve ever attended, with Vernon, Jenn Wasner (of Flock of Dimes and Wye Oak), and Dijon passing the microphone to one another. It’s an exhilarating relay, despite initially requiring the listener to parse through its overstuffed veneer. Meanwhile, “I’ll Be There” goes full gospel, delivering an earnest and soulful tune as Vernon pushes his unadorned falsetto out of its comfort zone.
Lyrically, SABLE, fABLE is surprisingly discernible and direct. Vernon rarely hides his feelings behind obfuscated phrases here, instead opting to express them through bold exclamations and candid questions. It’s a fitting, if somewhat unprofound, approach.
Vernon has hinted that SABLE, fABLE could be his final album as Bon Iver, and with a closing track titled “Au Revoir”, it’s not hard to come to that conclusion. As the instrumental epilogue hums to a close, you can picture Vernon packing up his gear and moving onward toward a brighter future. “Maybe it’s the time to go / I could leave behind the snow / For a land of palm and gold,” he ponders on “There’s a Rhythmn”. In the end, SABLE, fABLE may not be the boundary-pushing album many have come to expect with each new Bon Iver release, but it feels like the one Vernon needed to make for himself – a kind of self-prescribed therapy. After nearly 18 years of crafting music steeped in longing and anguish, hearing him reach such a hopeful resolution is heartening. “And every little thing is love / And right with me,” he declares on “Everything Is Peaceful Love”. Regardless of whether or not you prefer to commiserate with the sadness found on his past records, it’s clear that SABLE, fABLE could have only emerged from a place of hard-earned inner peace.
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