SABLE, fABLE
Justin Vernon has never been shy about bearing the weight of his instantly mythical origin story and his fast, unlikely trajectory into global stardom. Four albums and 18 years after *For Emma, Forever Ago*, *SABLE, fABLE* is a document of finding peace—joy, even—and a testament to the work it’s taken to get there. “This record, as much as that first record, if not more, was really just a keystone for healing and growing away from this time period where I felt trapped,” he tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. Once COVID wiped out the tour plans for 2019’s *i,i*, Vernon, like pretty much everyone, used the time to take stock, and he came to understand, among other things, that touring might not be the healthiest thing for him. So he made songs. “It really was like, ‘Okay, I’m not well and I won\'t make it if I don\'t do something to change this pretty drastically and stop the whole touring engine,” Vernon says. “There was a sense of relief and an incredible grief to say goodbye to the team that we built. I was like, ‘Let me just get these songs done and just sneak them out there so I can just get them off my chest,’ because that’s what I really needed: to finish them, to learn what was inside them.” The first of these songs, written at the beginning of lockdown, “THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS” is a snapshot of that lonely, uncertain time, but it feels bigger and more hopeful than that to Vernon with five years of hindsight. “In the short term, it makes you feel better, but it’s also a way to lean into your grief and lean into your pain and lean into your guilt,” he says. “I think eventually when I hear that song now, I feel clean from everything that I was dealing with when I had to write it and after I wrote it. But it takes years for things to take shape and for internal things to budge.” From there, the album begins to let more light in with songs like the evidently more hopeful “Everything Is Peaceful Love” (“It’s just all about celebrating this moment right here and just sort of trying to express that heart-leaping-out-of-your-chest feeling”) and “If Only I Could Wait,” featuring vocals from Danielle Haim of HAIM, which Vernon considers nothing less than his favorite American rock band. The album splits the difference between the immediacy of *For Emma* and the often inscrutable maximalism of *22, A Million* and *i,i*. It was during the album’s long gestation that Vernon’s profile was boosted by his work with Taylor Swift, even as his own project remained in the shadows, Vernon exercising a patience and restraint and creating a healthier perspective that was nothing less than career-saving, if not life-saving. “We are insanely beautiful creatures,” he says. “And so I think where I’ve got to with the simplicity of this music, it was just like, I just want to give it to you. I just want to have it be my version of Bob Seger’s ‘Against the Wind’—just boom, here it is. We’re not going to hide, we’re not going to put it behind any drapery. We’re going to just give it to you as much as humanly possible.”
On his fifth album, Justin Vernon moves out of the shadows and into an unabashedly joyful mindset and soundscape. His music remains as compelling as ever.
SABLE, fABLE gleams with heart-shaped eyes and an airy, soothing sunshine from Bon Iver.
Fans feared ‘SABLE, fABLE’ could be Bon Iver's big farewell, but instead his embrace of sunnier climes feels like a new chapter.
In a world of uncertainty and chaos in 2025, there is absolutely nothing wrong with just being nice.
Justin Vernon’s version of ‘radiant pop music’ is to brighten his earthy, acoustic landscapes with synths and drum pads
Bon Iver have never sounded so happy – the latest album from Justin Vernon and co revels in an unambiguous emotional clarity and joy.
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At this stage, Justin Vernon deserves our trust. As the creative force behind Bon Iver, one of the most successful alternative acts of the last two
This companion album to last year’s Sable EP gives those sorrowful songs a soulful lift, with Vernon’s beautiful falsetto vocals to the fore
Bon Iver's fifth studio LP SABLE, fABLE shifts from the stark beauty of the original EP to include uplifting sounds that are as enjoyable as they are personal.
SABLE, fABLE by Bon Iver album review by Michael Mannix for Northern Transmissions. The artist's LP drops on April 11th via Jagjaguwar
Justin Vernon and co take their sound in a new direction with Sable, Fable – their most honest album yet. Plus, the week’s best songs
Advance press described Sable, Fable as Bon Iver’s “sexiest” album yet, which is misleading. There’s a lot of romantic yearning, however, as Justin Vernon traces the arc of a relationship from infatuation to connection to contentment, a journey that he explores via blissed-out yacht rock (Everything Is Peaceful Love) and fuzzy Radiohead-style dirge rock (If Only Could Wait, a duet with Danielle Haim)