Bon Iver – SABLE, fABLE Review

Genres with a rekindled, contemporary edge, usually survive because new risks are uncovered. Bon Iver finds a freshness to the folk and soul tones with SABLE, fABLE. An EP release which soon evolved into a full-blown album, and all of it is collected here. A sweet prelude from Bon Iver, whose alternate pop and country style is nicely placed on this release. Softly spoken works but with that assured consistency, the definite meaning of their message, a contrast to those wispy and often free-flowing instrumental additions. It’s a nice and inevitable contrast which Iver works well to kindle and maintain. Iver never overhauls the troubles of pop sentimentality. That’s the real death knell for SABLE, fABLE, an album which has heart to it but is following a little too closely to the indie folk trendsetters. Iver never quite separates their work from that but it’s the gamble of comfort as a greater signifier for a listener than bold new stories. It pays off, at the very least. 

Isolated vocals on Awards Season feel a bit inevitable, and as though Bon Iver are chasing the awards mentioned in the title. Bring out those touching moments not by finding heart in your lyrics but by tugging at the listener’s. It’s done to make that instrumental boom, the brass to come through, that little bit heavier. Awards Season does work, a real highlight of SABLE, fABLE, but you can see the paint-by-numbers production, which focuses on this instrument or that vocal section. Clarity like that scrubs away some of the magic. What SABLE, fABLE struggles to do is push any of its songs further. Nothing featured after Awards Season is either a vibrant, unique step into new musical territory or a reduction of what preceded it. Bon Iver can be credited for their stability in the studio, but even their adaptations to different genre styles, like on Everything is Peaceful, sound tame. It’s as though they’re staying on the pop music course no matter what.  

Relatively tame work on Walk Home too, where the plodding tempo is enough to sink the instrumental variety Bon Iver offers. It’s that too sweet and refined vocal style which brings down the chance to connect on a higher emotional level with the work at hand. There’s a crispness, a pop desire within SABLE fABLE that clinically removes the hardship, which makes these songs more intimate occasions. A feature spot for Flock of Dimes and Dijon brings out the best in the dissonance of Day One, while Danielle Haim offers some solid work on If Only I Could Wait. These features, like the change in instrumental style or heady emotional writing, change little about the core of SABLE, fABLE. It takes all too long for this pop-adjacent style to take hold, but it does have some convincing moments. None of it is wholly responsible for bringing the project to life, but moments of slight interest amid a sea of tame offerings.  

From is a nice work, but that upbeat style and acoustic drive is something a well-versed listener will not only have heard before, but will prefer in the style of another artist. A risk-free album where the highs are muffled and the lows are hidden in plain sight. It’s not the slower tempo that marks a problem for Bon Iver, that is very much his selling point. How little he does with this gentle delivery, the softer touch, is staggering. You can listen through SABLE, fABLE as many times as you like, there is no hidden meaning. For a performer whose work is built on clarity, it’s a touch ironic to hear there is little in the way of a clear message. A likeable enough listen at the very least, but you would be hard-pressed to pull more than what Bon Iver offers out of this. Easily accessible pop motions which have all the makings of music to move you into feeling some emotional connection with the songs at hand. But none of it comes to life, Bon Iver does not have that sincerity to their work here.