BON IVER – SABLE, fABLE – 2LP – Black Vinyl [APR 11]

2LP – Black Vinyl inside a tip-on gatefold jacket with matte varnish and spot gloss, with custom cardstock inner sleeves. Packaging is printed in sable black and salmon, with custom interior floods on gatefold.

Bon Ivers three-song collection SABLE, was an act of vulnerability and unburdening. Written and recorded at a breaking point, they were songs of reflection, fear, depression, solitude, and atonement. The word sable implies darkness, and in that triptych, Justin Vernon sought to unpack some long-compounded pain. Then, at the tail end of its final track AWARDS SEASON, theres the barest thread of a lighter melodya drone, a glimmer, an ember, hope for something more. SABLE, was the prologue, a controlled burn clearing the way for new possibilities. fABLE is the book. Stories of introduction and celebration. The fresh growth that blankets the charred ground. Where SABLE, was a work of solitude, fABLE is an outstretched hand.

Compared to the sparse minimalism of its three-song table setter, fABLE is all lush vibrance. Radiant, ornate pop music gleams around Vernons voice as he focuses on a new and beautiful era. On every song, his eyes are locked with one specific person. Its love, which means theres an intense clarity, focus, and honesty within fABLE. Its a portrait of a man flooded and overwhelmed by that first meeting (Everything Is Peaceful Love). Theres a tableau defined by sex and irrepressible desire (Walk Home). This is someone filled with light and purpose seeing an entire future right in front of him: a partner, new memories, maybe a family.

While not as minimal as its companion EP, fABLEs sound appears to walk back the dense layers of sound Vernon hid behind on records like i,i and 22, a million. Theres nothing evasive or boundary-busting about this music. Its a canvas for truth laid bare. Much of the album was recorded at Vernons April Base in Wisconsin after years of the studio laying dormant during a renovation. The albums conceptual genesis happened on 2.22.22 when Jim-E Stack, Vernons close collaborator and guide throughout the creative process, arrived at the base with Danielle Haim. Snowed in for multiple days, their voices intertwined for the ballad If Only I Could Wait. Suddenly, Haim gave voice to this crucial perspectivethe one Vernon seems to hold in sacred regard across fABLE. Accompanied by Rob Mooses strings, its a track about wearinessabout not having the strength to be the best version of yourself outside the glow of new love.

Theres something undeniably healing about infatuation. Cleaving to someone else can feel like light pouring in from a door thats suddenly swung wide. But theres a reason SABLE, is of a piece with fABLE; even after you put in the work, the shadow still rears its head from time to time. On Theres A Rhythmn, Vernon finds himself back in an old feeling, this time seeking an alternative instead of erasure: Can I feel another way? Theres an understanding that even when youve reached a new chapter, youll always find yourself back in your own foundational muck. A fable isnt a fairy tale. Yes, theres the good shit: unbridled joy, trips to Spain, the color salmon as far as the eye can see. But fables arent interested in happy endings or even endings at all; theyre here to instill a lesson.

As the album winds to a close, he acknowledges the need for patience and a commitment to put in the work. Theres a selfless rhythm required when youre enmeshing yourself with another person. The songand by extension the entire albumis a pledge. Hes ready to find that pace.

Tracklist:

THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS
S P E Y S I D E
AWARDS SEASON
Short Story
Everything Is Peaceful Love
Walk Home
Day One (feat. Dijon and Flock of Dimes)
From
I’ll Be There
If Only I Could Wait (feat. Danielle Haim)
There’s A Rhythmn
Au Revoir