Review: Bon Iver – SABLE,

Bon Iver
SABLE,
Jagjaguwar
Street: 10.18
Bon Iver = MTV Unplugged + William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying 

Bon Iver, the character, has made mourning and grief one of his defining traits—one that has attracted a huge audience and pervades his music in almost every way. And while we, as the audience, may perceive these traits as authenticity, there is a veil between the character and Justin Vernon himself that we cannot peer through. This veil exists for all performers and while we may feel we know Bon Iver intimately in his struggles and heartache, we know very little about Vernon. This veil, though, seems to have broken recently, leaving the artist bare and truly vulnerable. On Vernon’s last tour while performing “715 – CRΣΣKS,” he broke down and wept on stage in Duluth, Minnesota while the crowd cheered on. For the audience in attendance that night, it must have felt like the artist was deeply connecting with his own music and performance, though Vernon later told The New Yorker that moment was one of his lowest: “And I feel unsafe, like this is not an O.K. place for someone to be. And the crowd is going wild, you know? I’m not mad at them. I would also be cheering for encouragement. But I was thinking, ‘They want this’. Or ‘this is making sense to them.’” It’s hard to not see that moment, in some big or small way, resulting in SABLE, just a few years later, a project filled to the brim with long-held guilt and shame, culminating in Vernon accepting life once more. 

SABLE, is, in essence, a multimedia project exploring the darkness within Vernon’s past and heart. Throughout the four tracks and three music videos, we see the artist confess to his multiple failings in his relationships, friendships and within his own internal world. Sonically, you could easily call this project a return to form, a kind of call home from the wondering, spiraling and autotune driven i,i and 22 a million. This EP is the first substantial project since his collaboration with poet Ross Gay in 2021 to adapt his 281 line poem “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” to Vernon’s signature electronic ambiance. And though there has been much silence from the artist, a transformation has clearly happened in the quiet moments. Maybe he feels it’s time to ring in a final act to the character, one who’s taken center stage in the tryptic-esque music videos, barefoot, in shadow and with sunlight glinting through his grown-out and thinning hair. It’s hard to not feel as if this EP is a swan song of sorts with compounding images of illness, death and passing: In the “S P E Y S I D E” music video, he is laid out on a bed, the top of his head pointed toward an open door. In the final video for “AWARD SEASON,” Vernon performs behind a staticky TV screen, as if we are rewatching a final performance where he can’t even manage to pick up the guitar. 

While short, SABLE, is filled to the brim and plays out in three acts. The chime on “…” that rings in the EP is harsh and mounting, like a flatline or a disconnected call that ends just as quickly as it started. “THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS” sees Vernon trapped in the layered weight of his own guilt, the kind of guilt that ties itself to each of your ribs and pulls you into submission. “Say I went and told them how / I am afraid of changing / And when it comes a time to check and rearrange shit / There are things behind things behind things / And there are rings within rings within rings.” Sonically, the track is reminiscent of the break out era for Bon Iver back in the early 2010s, with layered guitar plucking, soft electronic backing notes and Vernon cycling between his signature falsetto and baritone. The following track “S P E Y S I D E” furthers Vernon’s understanding of his own guilt to a place of total loss and regret, opening the track with the lines, “I know now that I can’t make good / How I wish I could.” Along with this comes the desire for others to see him in this place of overwhelming ache: “It serves to suffer, make a hole in my foot / And I hope you look.” This in particular draws a line to his moment in Duluth, how his raw heartache benefits the character of Bon Iver and recontextualizes our understanding of performative vulnerability and pain. “S P E Y S I D E” pares down the instrumentals more, losing much of the electronic accompaniment and leaving just Vernon’s voice, rolling through his falsetto with a single guitar. 

“AWARD SEASON” is potentially the rawest track Vernon has ever made. Devoid of all instruments, save for a bridge with bright jazz orchestration and the occasional chord struck on a piano, Vernon sings with a wavering voice, and in the last minutes of the track, he lets his voice crack,failing to meet the notes he’s so well known for. The line that gives this project its name sees Vernon accept that while love grows, it also passes: “But I’m a sable / And honey, us the fable / You said that you were unable / That it’s not reprieved / Oh, but maybe things can change / What can wax can wane / Things can get replayed / And if it’s all the same / Oh, just take my hand / And place it on your blame / And let it wash away / With you I will remain.” Though there is a following verse, this passage is the crux of SABLE,: the impermanence of love and the threads it leaves behind. The track fades for the last 41 seconds with soft electronic notes, allowing us to exhale. 

This EP, while short, is a very unique project for Bon Iver and I believe it will be a standout moment in his discography long after he’s set the guitar down for good. Like all Bon Iver projects, there are numerous images, illusions and metaphors I didn’t have the space to cover, but they are very worth digging into yourself, especially paired with the accompanying music videos. –wphughes

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