The Breakdown
After six long years, Bon Iver returns with SABLE, fABLE, a two-part odyssey that explores love, longing, and transformation with his trademark emotional depth and sonic inventiveness. More than just an album, it feels like a narrative split across two discs—SABLE, a prologue of hushed reflection and sadness, and fABLE, a blossoming, kaleidoscopic response full of joy, desire and tender complexity. It’s Bon Iver at his most expansive and vulnerable, treading the line between emotional fragility and musical ambition with striking grace.
The album opens with a fleeting drone (“…”), before unfurling into “THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS”, a lush piece of indie folk with sweeping harmonies, swooning steel guitar, and delicate strings. It’s instantly evocative—rooted in melancholia but never wallowing. Tracks like “S PE Y S I D E” and “AWARDS SEASON” continue the introspective tone, with dreamlike melodies and subtle layers of electronic texture. On “AWARDS SEASON”, gentle saxophone and piano create a moment of breakthrough, suggesting light peeking through emotional static. These opening songs, meditative and careful, form the shadowed SABLE half of the album.
As the second disc opens, the light pours in. “Short Story” builds from static strings and gentle electronics into an expansive pop moment, with gluey synths and female harmonies circling Justin Vernon’s falsetto. Then comes the stunning “Everything Is Peaceful Love”—a genre-bending highlight that fuses folk, funk and prog-pop. Steel guitar meets bubbling electronics in a perfectly calibrated swirl, and the song’s ever-shifting backdrop reflects the joyful disorientation of falling deeply in love. “Walk Home” keeps that glow alive, mixing hip-hop-inspired beats and pitched vocals with sweeping melodies, creating a contradiction that works beautifully. It’s sensual, strange, and deeply moving.
The album’s emotional centerpiece may be “If Only I Could Wait,” a duet with Danielle Haim. It’s a weary, soul-baring moment—equal parts Springsteen grit and Bon Iver experimentalism, with bluesy guitars, swirling electronics and stunning vocal interplay. The collaboration is both sobering and hopeful, a reflection on the limits of love and the effort it takes to hold on. “From” switches gears into alt-Americana, straightforward but warmly optimistic, while “I’ll Be There” dives into indie funk territory, complete with gospel backing vocals and stabs of saxophone. “There’s a Rhythm” feels like looking through a sepia lens—suffused with nostalgia and soft beauty. It all closes with “Au Revoir”, an ambient synth coda that gently fades the story to black.
SABLE, fABLE is a remarkable return for Bon Iver—a sprawling, genre-fluid collection that folds folk, soul, jazz, and glitchy pop into something uniquely his own. It’s emotionally intricate, sonically adventurous, and consistently affecting. An album about becoming, breaking, healing, and holding on—it’s a fable worth believing in.
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