Bon Iver - SABLE, fABLE (2025)

Mostly removing the layers that have swathed his voice and sometimes cocooned his songs over the past decade or so, Justin Vernon seems to be in a revelatory mood. That's not to say the singer-songwriter—who, as Bon Iver, has long straddled the seemingly incongruous worlds of his Wisconsin base and the A-list heights of collaborators such as Taylor Swift—has gone back to the stark folk of his debut, 2008's For Emma, Forever Ago. But this stripping away lends itself well, symbolically, to the self-examination that pervades his fifth album. "I get caught looking in the mirror on the regular," he sings on "Things Behind Things Behind Things," suggesting vanity before exposing the Wilde-ian truth: "And what I see there resembles some competitor … I am afraid of changing." There's a cold edge to the music, with its quick and subtle minor-key changes, that underscores a sense of reproach; it's an effect he uses again on "S P E Y S I D E," which combines the humility of gentle strumming with a more strident pluck—exclamatory punctuation ringing out like pangs, alongside lowing viola by Rob Moose. It's one of the saddest Bon Iver songs ever, which is really saying something. "Man, I'm so sorry/ I got the best of me/ I really damn been on such a violent spree," Vernon sings, wrestling with guilt and wishing to go back in time and see his actions from the perspective of the person he's singing to (A lover? A friend? Himself?). Almost completely bare of instrumentation, "AWARDS SEASON" is a knockout about resisting, then embracing, change because there is no other way forward. It has spawned an Easter egg hunt on Reddit, with its lyrics about a celebrated past companion: "But now it's the season/ And I know I will be seein' ya/ On the TV for some reason/ God, my heart." Rising country star Carter Faith adds little snatches of harmony, but it is saxophonist Michael Lewis who steals the show with a devastating hit. No man can live on sadness alone, though, and Vernon wisely varies the tempo and mood. The first four songs of SABLE, fABLE, he told the podcast Popcast, were "almost like a cartoon of sad Bon Iver music … [but] they were kind of like these last moments of, like, the last gasping breath of my former self that really did feel bad for himself." Touring with Mk.gee and opener Dijon, he added, pushed him toward a sort of levity that sometimes even comes across as sensuality. Atmospheric, R&B-flavored "Everything Is Peaceful Love" can solidly be described as "feel good," with its '80s twilight synth, dreamy pedal steel and nosebleed falsetto turn. "Walk Home" exhibits echoes of Frank Ocean and hops from silky soul to country to gospel. "Day One" includes a turn by Dijon and Flock of Dimes, while Mk.gee and Jacob Collier garner songwriting credits on "From." And big, bustling "If Only I Could Wait" welcomes duet partner Danielle Haim for rafter-reaching alchemy.

TRACKLIST

CD 01 (4 / 12:19)
1. Bon Iver - …
2. Bon Iver - THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS
3. Bon Iver - S P E Y S I D E
4. Bon Iver - AWARDS SEASON

CD 02 (9 / 29:24)
1. Bon Iver - Short Story
2. Bon Iver - Everything Is Peaceful Love
3. Bon Iver - Walk Home
4. Bon Iver - Day One
5. Bon Iver - From
6. Bon Iver - I'll Be There
7. Bon Iver;Danielle Haim - If Only I Could Wait
8. Bon Iver - There's A Rhythmn
9. Bon Iver - Au Revoir