Bon Iver — Sable, Fable | Album Review

SABLE, fABLE, released on April 11, 2025, is the fifth studio album from the genre-bending band from Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Bon Iver. The album comes fives years after i,i

For almost fifteen years, Bon Iver has timestamped my life with his albums. I still remember hearing "Skinny Love"for the first time on Pandora Radio in 2011. There are rumors that this is the final album and if that is true, then Sable, Fable closes the chapter of Bon Iver drenched in sunlight.

The album is two discs. Sable, meant to reflect the Bon Iver we all know well—deep, moody lyrics sung in Justin Vernon’s resonant voice, accompanied by sparse guitar and piano—and who Vernon is trying to remove himself from. As described on the band’s official website, “Being Bon Iver meant playing a part, and intentionally leaning into that role meant frequently pressing hard on a metaphorical bruise.” 

A salmon colored square surrounded by black.

A black colored square surrounded by salmon color pink.

The Sable album cover (left) is the inverse of Fable (right): dark black surrounding a small salmon square, signifying the suffocation that comes with pressing on that bruise. “I would like the feeling gone,” Vernon sings in the opening track, “Things Behind Things Behind Things,” that beautifully depicts the healing work I did last year. As I peered into my childhood and began to unpack, as soon as I felt like I’d overcome one thing, another would pop up. There were things behind things behind things, memories behind memories behind memories.

"You know, when I’m trying to fix things, it’s like my mind and my heart, is like this old garage, and I just keep moving things around, but there’s things behind things behind things.”

The third and final song of the EP, “Awards Seasons,” opens with a soft single note that gets stronger. It sounds like hope, like realization that you can take your finger off the bruise. Vernon sings: “You can be remade / You can live again / What was pain now’s gain / A new path gets laid / And you know what is great? / Nothing stays the same” 

Is this permission? Is this the deep breath before the jump into the unknown? Is this allowance that life can be a BOTH/AND? This album feels like a release, an allowance, that the darkness of my past does not need to define me. I can let the light come in. 

“Where SABLE, was a work of solitude, fABLE is an outstretched hand,” notes the band’s official website. Fable is a nine-track album and the dark Sable is now surrounded by Vernon’s favorite color, salmon. The songs are bright and full of light, with the opening lyric, “Oh the Vibrance!” 

On release day, I went to my local record store, Hideaway Music in Chestnut Hill, and brought it home to listen in my favorite way: laying on the floor, eyes closed, with headphones. It easily brought tears to my eyes (Short Story), made me want to take a drive on a sunny day with the windows down (From) and slow dance with my husband (Walk Home) all while keeping a cohesive and brilliant sound.

Bon Iver’s album releases have time stamped my life. I remember waking up one morning as a sophomore in college to the release of 22, A Million and thinking, Whoa. Is this the same guy? I remember walking the Benjamin Franklin Bridge to “33 God” and sitting by the river to “____45_____”, my heart aching at the lyrics: “I’ve been carved in fire.” When i,i came out, I was sitting in my apartment in North Philly, watching all the music videos before my evening shift at the Westin. I was fortunate to catch him live (twice) for 22 and i,i, and I remember feeling my entire being vibrate with the bass of “10 d E A T h b R E a s T.”

Sable, Fable arrives after a year of intense inner work and healing, of trudging through the mud of my childhood and rewriting the stories I used to tell myself. This year, I am reaping the seeds I sowed and Vernon somehow has found a way to soundtrack all the nuances that comes with letting the light shine in and God, it feels good to let go, to bask in the sun of a world I’ve created. When talking about “Everything Is Peaceful Love”, Vernon says, “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.” Yes, Claire!! Climb up that tree! Skate down the street! Sing at the top of your lungs and lay in the grass. There is more to this life than healing, than reflecting, than growing. There are pockets of joy to crawl into. “No, we don’t need no window curtains / And we can let the light come in.” (Walk Home) 

One of my favorite things about this album is that there are lyrics that echo to their previous albums. In “Day One” (feat. Dijon & Flock of Dimes), Vernon sings, “I told you to be patient,” which echoes “Skinny Love:” “I told you to be patient.” And in “There’s a Rhythmn”, the album’s final track with lyrics, Vernon sings, “But there are miles and miles to go,” which echoes "Holocene:” “And I can see for miles, miles, miles.” It feels like a full circle.

“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. 

Whether or not this is the end of Bon Iver, I am eternally grateful for their music that has defined the past fourteen years of my life. I’m excited to roll the windows down and feel the wind in my hair, singing along, there’s a rhythmn, there’s a rhythmn.

To celebrate this album, I dedicated a two-page spread in my perzine, April 2025. You can order this zine here.

Two page spread from my April 2025 zine